VATICAN - Catholic Prayers in the Languages of the World: Indonesian (3)

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Indonesia, the most populated Muslim country in the world has a population of 209.260.000. The people are 87% Muslims. Christianity 12.5%: Protestant 9.3% (246 denominations, 16.000.000 reformed Churches; 3.1% Catholics; 2% Orthodox Christians; Hinduism: 1.9%. Buddhism: 1%. There are 1.5 million Buddhists and some 17 million are Christians, mainly protestants, or followers of Hindu and Confucius. There are also ancient 'traditional religions' such as Kejawen in Java, and Bissu.
In 1945, facing the need to pull together the diverse archipelago, the future President Sukarno promulgated Pancasila as a recipe for Indonesian patriotism. The ideology was announced in a speech known as "The Birth of the Pancasila", in which Sukarno gave to the Independence Preparatory Committee on 1 June 1945 (Saafroedin Bahar et al 1992:65-72). He thus helped solve the conflict between Muslims, nationalists and Christians. The 1945 Constitution then set forth the Pancasila as the embodiment of basic principles of an independent Indonesian state.
The first of the five principles of the Pancasila is belief in the One and Only God. Article 29 of the 1945 Constitution guarantees freedom of worship and no religion is given precedence.
A law passed in 1969 by the Soeharto regime established the five main religions in Indonesia: Islam, Protestant Christianity (agama Kristen), Catholic Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianesim. (to be continued) (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/7/2007 - righe 28, parole 361)