ASIA/INDONESIA - Bishop Hormat: The “domestic” and “ad gentes” mission of the Catholics of Flores. “Vocations are not our work, but God’s,”

Ruteng (Agenzia Fides) - Ruteng (Agenzia Fides) - Verbites, Somaschians, Montfortians, Vocationists, Scalabrinians and Camillians, together with the Sisters of Perpetual Help, the Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration and many other female congregations, make up the vibrant religious panorama of the diocese of Ruteng, on the Indonesian island of Flores, which holds many records: it is the largest diocese in Indonesia in terms of Catholic population, with 800,000 faithful out of a total population of one million people, and it is located on an island that is also a "unique" place in the archipelago of 17,000 islands, in a country with a Muslim majority: it is in fact "the Catholic heart" of Indonesia. Ruteng is also called "the diocese of a thousand congregations" because it has so many religious institutions with houses, social facilities, schools and seminaries full of young people, so much so that Flores is also called the "promised land" for vocations. Vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are a wealth that is universally recognized: even Pope Francis, in his homily at the Mass for the World Day of Consecrated Life 2022, said that, given the crisis of vocations, "one can go to the island in Indonesia (Flores, ed.) to find vocations".
"In the minor seminary of Ruteng we have 450 students, while in the nearby diocese of Labuan Bajo, recently separated from the territory of Ruteng, there are 350. Many new students want to enter every year: it must be said that the seminaries are first and foremost a good middle school, but they are also a place where faith is cultivated and vocational discernment is encouraged. And we must not forget that there are also many formation houses and religious seminaries that welcome hundreds of other students," explains the Bishop of Ruteng, Ciprianus Hormat, in an interview with Fides.
It is known that "the percentage of those who continue the path from minor seminary to major seminary is 40 or 50%, but it is true that this is so, that students listen to and deepen the will of God in their lives and follow their own path. However, these are important years for human and Christian formation, a legacy that they carry with them for life," the bishop notes.
The bishop describes pastoral life in the diocese of Ruteng: "We have 85 parishes, 212 diocesan priests and more than 200 religious priests, about 50 women's congregations with a total of more than a thousand consecrated women present in almost every parish. The faith is alive and for this we thank the Portuguese and Dutch missionaries who brought and preached the Gospel to all the villages and ensured that it took root in the country. There are no missionaries in the diocese today because since 1991 the Church has been walking on its own strength," he said.
"There are a total of 265 primary schools and 20 high schools run by the diocese, attended by thousands of students, as well as numerous other educational institutions: in our region, the Church has always been an institution that promotes good schools, and the first schools to be established here were Catholic. There are also vocational schools: the missionaries have already recognized and understood that change or influence on society begins with education. Recently, after hard work, we opened the Catholic University of St. Paul, which has quickly become an important point of reference for our young people," the bishop continued.
All this, according to the bishop, is a gift to be shared: "This wealth does not belong only to us. We put it at the service of the Church in Indonesia and the universal Church. This is why we have a flourishing and dynamic 'missio domestica': the priests of Ruteng go to other dioceses in Indonesia to carry out a pastoral and apostolic service in poor regions that also need ecclesiastical workers, such as Papua, Sumatra and Borneo."
"The gift of vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life is always a mystery: it is God who calls," the bishop continues. "These vocations are a work of God. Accompanying young men to the priesthood is therefore not just a work 'for us', but for the benefit of the entire ecclesial community, including Europe. From Ruteng, our priests go on missions to Switzerland, Austria and Italy. With Holland, the former colonial power, there is a pastoral agreement under which some of our priests go there for a few years as 'fidei donum' priests and then return to their homeland. In this way, we are truly part of the universal Church and feel like such: the concerns of the Church in Holland are our concerns. The memory of the good that the last Dutch Bishop did in our territory, the Verbite Wilhelm van Bekkum (Bishop of Ruteng from 1951 to 1972, ed.), is still alive. "We are grateful in our hearts, which we express in this way today. Today we want to continue the work of these missionaries in the present and let ourselves be inspired by them: we want to be, as Pope Francis says, an open, missionary outgoing Church." (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 12/10/2024)

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vocations

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seminaries

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seminarians

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faith

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missio ad gentes

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fidei donum

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evangelization

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