Vatican City (Fides Service) - The Catholic Church in Indonesia is fully committed to working for national unity and development. "Our Church is among the most active and dynamic in Asia and it enjoys respect and esteem for its work in education, social assistance and the respect it shows for all the different ethnic groups and cultures", Indonesian Bishops in Rome for the ad limina visit 17-31 March, told Fides Service. Following the teaching of the Pope in the post synodal exhortation, Ecclesia in Asia, Indonesian Catholics are fully committed to working to promote development and to spread the Gospel values of peace, justice, freedom, solidarity, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ with their lives.
Speaking with Fides Service the Bishops recalled that in Indonesia, threatened by fragmentation and disorder in various areas, Aceh, Moluccas, Indonesian Papua, Borneo, one of the Church's priorities is to promote reconciliation and national unity. Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi of Amboina diocese in the Moluccas Islands says that "the secessionist movement stems from injustice: the central government in Jakarta exploits natural resources in various parts of the archipelago (Moluccas, Borneo, Papua) without sharing the benefits with the local people. Given the heterogeneous composition of Indonesia, more regional autonomy is needed."
Bishop Martinus Situmorang of Pandang agrees: "For many years our government has been too centralised, leaving little space for local creativity. A sense of injustice has led people to grasp the flag of secession to make their voices heard. For years the Church has warned that unless the central government eliminates corrupt, insensitive and immoral rule, the country will break up" The Bishop lives on Sumatra where the Aceh province recently adopted Sharia Muslim law. "Under Sharia law there is a danger that Christians feel they are foreigners in their own land. When civil life in a region is based on the principles of one religion, it is inevitable that other religious groups suffer. Today there is still prudence there are no signs of intolerance but this is a situation of injustice."
Beside working to promote national unity the Church is involved in the field of social assistance and healthcare. Bishop Mandagi says "We work among the people with a spirit of sharing not only in charity for the poor but also in education, health-care, development projects, organising co-operatives for farmers, fisher folk and workers. It is the Church's duty to remind the government that the country's resources must be used for the common good, to address the economic and social problems of the people still suffering from the effects of the Asian economic crisis in the 1990s."
In Papua - says Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar of Jayapura, our priests are very involved in social work to help the poor, they go to the cities to buy medicine or food for them, they help farmers with small agricultural projects. However, perhaps more time should be devoted to catechism, formation and liturgy: to caring for the spirit as well as material needs of people."
In Borneo, Says Bishop Giulio Mencuccuni of Sanggau, "the Church organises courses in domestic economy, forms co-operatives for working with cellulose. We are also involved at the cultural level and in encouraging the opening of credit unions to spread a mentality of saving money." PA (Fides Service 24/3/2003 EM lines 43 Words: 550)