JAYAPURA (UCAN): Catholics in Papua, Indonesia, hailed the appointment by Pope Francis of Father Yanuarius Theofilus Matopai You as the new bishop of the Diocese of Jayapura on October 29.
He will become the first native Papuan bishop more than a century after Catholicism found its roots in the easternmost region of the country.
A member of the indigenous Mee tribe in Papua, the 61-year-old Bishop-elect You, will succeed retired Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar.
During the announcement at Jayapura’s Christ the King Cathedral, Bishop Ladjar urged people to pray for Bishop-elect You.
“The letter from the Vatican ambassador told me that I should announce in the local Church in this diocese that the Holy Father Pope Francis has appointed a person to be the new bishop of Jayapura,” he said.
“He is a native Papuan,” he said, which was welcomed with applause by the congregation.
Bishop-elect You will lead the Catholic Church in the conflict-torn region, which has one archdiocese and four suffragan dioceses.
This comes as indigenous Papuan priests have repeatedly called on bishops since 2020 to be vocal about human rights violations in the region amid an escalation of conflict between Indonesian security forces and pro-independence rebels in recent years.
Born in 1961, You was ordained a priest in 1991. He looked after various parishes before working in the education sector. In 2002, he became the parish priest of the Cathedral Church in Jayapura and served as the vicar general of the diocese until 2007.
He studied for a master’s degree in psychology at state-university Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta from 2008-2010 and a doctorate in anthropology at Cenderawasih University Jayapura from 2015-2018.
Since September 2019, he has been the rector of the Fajar Timur Abepura School of Theological Philosophy. He is also a lecturer at the John Rasul Catholic Pastoral High School, Waena, as well as a mentor for seminarians in Jayapura Diocese.
“I am deeply moved.” said Soleman Itlay, who was present during the announcement, saying that many Papuans like him were moved when the appointment was made public. “I also saw the mothers beside me crying after hearing the name of the bishop-elect being called. I asked them, what made them cry. They said it was because ‘we had been praying and waiting for the Vatican to elect an indigenous Papuan bishop,’.”
He thanked Pope Francis for listening to their hopes and “hope that the appointment of this bishop-elect will make the Catholic Church more deeply rooted in Papua and its development will also be more solid.”
