ASIA/INDONESIA - Sustaining the quality of life in minor Seminaries: the commitment of a Catholic organization

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Jakarta (Agenzia Fides) - Caring for and managing the collective funding programs to support minor Seminaries in Indonesia: this is the mission of "GOTAUS", an initiative born within the Indonesian Catholic community to maintain a high quality of life in the 40 institutes which in the various Indonesian dioceses, they deal with the formation of adolescents on the path to the priesthood. GOTAUS (acronym for "Gerakan Orangtua Asuh Untuk Seminaries", that is to say "Parents' Missionary Program for Seminaries") celebrates its twentieth year of existence in 2021. It was born at the beginning of the millennium as a private, non-profit Catholic organization, "to provide financial assistance and above all to meet the basic needs of food, health, study of at least 3,700 minor seminarians in Indonesia", explains to Agenzia Fides Royani Lim, member of the organization. It includes the parents of seminarians and many other volunteers and faithful who, throughout the vast Indonesian nation, have at heart the formation of young people who feel the seed of the vocation to priestly life. GOTAUS, thanks to its valuable commitment, is an official partner of the Commission for Seminaries in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Indonesia (KWI). The Executive Secretary of the Commission for Seminaries, Father Joseph Kristanto Suratman, speaking to Fides praises the work of GOTAUS in providing and taking care of the needs of seminarians throughout the country. "We encourage all the faithful to make a contribution to Seminaries where young people are formed and educated to become priests and GOTAUS helps us a lot in this task", he explains. "The Seminary is the heart of the Church, since only thanks to the path of human and spiritual growth made in that place can a priest be born. We are deeply grateful to people and entities like GOTAUS who show their concern and participation in the life and sustainability of Seminaries.
GOTAUS it is a good example of the compassionate commitment of lay Catholics", he adds. The organization promotes special fundraising days and events in various parishes and dioceses. In this period of pandemic, it has intensified contacts and individual consultations with donors and has increased its campaign and visibility in the media and on social networks. GOTAUS is also involved in supporting, in a particular way, the parents of children called to the priesthood who come from very poor families and therefore cannot pay for their children's studies. To this end, it also involves entrepreneurs, banks and sponsors of various kinds in the fundraising work. Diana Lawanto, a Catholic lay woman from St. Andrew's Parish Church in West Jakarta, who participates in GOTAUS, notes that "fundraising in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic is very difficult but, through a personal and direct relationship with many potential donors, we still manage to contribute, by the grace of God". In the past year, GOTAUS raised 3.5 billion Indonesian rupees (about 200 thousand euros) to donate to the Seminaries of the Indonesian nation. (MH-PA) (Agenzia Fides, 20/5/2021)