Indonesian president joins
Christians in celebrating National Christmas
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| Indonesian Christians participate Christmas Eve service in a church in Surabaya, East Java, on December 24, 2019 (AFP) |
President Joko Widodo joined Catholics and Protestants on
December 27 in Bogor for the National Christmas celebrations, which had
'friendship' as its theme. The president stressed that the state guarantees
religious freedom.
By Robin Gomes
The Indonesian president on Friday joined Christians at the
National Christmas celebrations, evoking the principles of harmony,
cohesion and diversity that the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation is
founded on.
President Joko Widodo joined the celebrations with some
10,000 Catholics and Protestants in attendance at Bogor’s Sentul International
Convention Centre, West Java province. Several government officials also
accompanied him.
The theme of the event sponsored by the Catholic Bishops’
Conference of Indonesia (KWI) and the Council of Churches in Indonesia (PGI)
was “Let’s be friends to anybody”, taken from the Gospel of John (15:14-15).
The initiative was divided into two parts. After the
Holy Mass celebrated by KWI president, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo, archbishop of
Jakarta, followed the festivities.
Friendship
Commenting on the theme of friendship, Cardinal Suharyo
explained it was to acknowledge the fact that as Indonesians they feel that
their sense of brotherhood and good social relations have been disrupted by
“hate speeches, which had not been heard for a long time but which now suddenly
seem to reappear.” The other issue is “identity politics, which is
spreading intolerance.”
In light of this, the cardinal said, “we had to make our
Christmas celebrations more down-to-earth by adopting a theme that calls upon
us to reach out in friendship towards others.”
Unity in diversity
Addressing participants, President Widodo said that
Christmas celebrations offer the best opportunity to reiterate social cohesion.
“This is the time when we celebrate good social relations,”
said the president. “We are called to celebrate and show our gratitude for our
diversity. Such a marvellous diversity has united us as a nation.”
"We must maintain such good social unity, which we have
been able to guarantee for decades,” he noted, adding though that things “might
become volatile due to many provocations that could split us.”
"The Pancasila guarantees the freedom to adopt a
religion and people are free to express their faith,” explained the president.
“I want to reiterate here, once again, that the state guarantees these rights.”
The Pancasila are the 5 principles that form the
philosophical and political ideology of the Indonesian state, ensuring unity
amidst religious pluralism in an officially secular system.
Restrictions to Christian worship
Widodo's statement came in the wake of recent controversies
over freedom of worship for religious minorities in a country where some 87% of
the population professes Islam. This year, some Catholic and Protestant
communities were prevented from holding Christmas prayers and services because
of legal obstacles.
Christians in two villages in Dharmasraya and Sijunjung
regencies (West Sumatra) were able to celebrate Christmas only after their
situation became front-page news in national and international media. Local
leaders had refused them permission to hold their celebrations.
For two Protestant communities in West Java, the Yasmin
Indonesian Christian Church (GKI Yasmin) in Bogor and the Philadelphia
Congregation of Batak Protestant Churches (HKBP Filadelfia) in Bekasi Regency,
the year 2019 saw another Christmas without the right to use their own place of
worship.
For years they have been denied the right to conduct
religious activities in their respective houses of worship, due to alleged
permit violations. Since 2012, GKI Yasmin and HKBP Filadelfia have been celebrating
Christmas Mass in front of the presidential palace.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the
Christians, local authorities are delaying the implementation of the
decision. (Source: AsiaNews)
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