JAKARTA (Agenzia Fides): “The Church in Indonesia is committed to being a community of hope, which promotes communion between all components of society,” Ignatius Cardinal Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, the archbishop of Jakarta, said. Among the various ways to promote harmony, the local Church has also chosen what terms “catechesis in pills”: in which all the parishes conduct a three-minute catechesis on the social teachings of the Church before the final blessing of each Mass. Examples cited include lay-led Church movements.
“Caring for our brothers who are poor, suffering or vulnerable is our priority,” Cardinal Hardjoatmodjo said, saying that the vision for the archdiocese can be summed up as: “The Church as a community of hope.”
The cardinal said, “We live our faith in community. Inspiring formulas like this one give creativity to announce and live the gospel.” This approach was also promoted in the Archdiocese of Semarang, which the cardinal headed up for 12 years and is now been proposed for Jakarta.
Everything is developed according to the synodal model of “walking together,” which facilitates the proposal to the community of the faithful the guidelines and key words of the Synod on synodality, “communion, participation, mission”.
The Church in Indonesia is cultivating dialogue on three levels: the first is with other religious groups, especially Muslims, since 87 per cent of the population of the country is Muslim; the second is with the poor; the third is cultural dialogue.
The cardinal remarked that the greatest challenge of the Church in Indonesia is “to build the Catholic community in Indonesia more in line with Gaudium et spes [The Church in the Modern World] and social teachings,” which encompass presence in public life, business , culture.
In this framework, the Church is inviting the faithful to explore and seek creative ways to realise the values of the Pancasila [the Charter of the Five Principles] and to reflect on the social teachings of the Church.
