Commentary 24/09/06 Can Francis save Indonesian Church elites from ‘devil’s dung?’

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Can Francis save Indonesian Church elites from ‘devil’s dung?’

Indonesian Catholic Church has never crafted an official policy of respecting indigenous self-determination in West Papua

A Papuan man holding a picture of Pope Francis takes part in a protest held in front of the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Jakarta on Sept. 4 to request Pope Francis's immediate intervention against the Indonesian government's military operations in Papua province. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP)

By Cypri Jehan Paju Dale

Published: September 06, 2024 03:57 AM GMT

Updated: September 06, 2024 05:05 AM GMT

As I write this piece on my way from Jakarta to Papua, Indonesia is hosting Pope Francis’ first leg of an 11-day pastoral visit to four Asia and Oceania nations from Sept. 3 to 13. The papal visit to Indonesia is limited to Jakarta, and the national capital is celebrating it with all its pomp and glory.

Almost at the same time as the papal visit to Asia, the predominantly Catholic Awyu tribe in Papua, part of Indonesia, prepares for the Sept. 9-14 Feast of the Cross. It is an annual feast that aims not only to exalt the Cross but also a ritual that reinforces the power of the Cross to defend their land from outsiders’ encroachment.

Every year, the Awyu tribal people in the Merauke, Boven Digoel, and Mappi areas gather, pray, and install red crosses at several important points to block the expansion of large-scale plantations and logging into their territories.

Known as Salib Merah (Red Cross) Movements, the Awyu combines indigenous and Christian rituals to invoke the power of God and their ancestors to support their efforts to defend their forests and livelihoods from state-sponsored and corporate-led development in their area.

In Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, indigenous Papuan Christians from various denominations commemorated the papal visit by organizing the Way of the Cross on Sept. 4 on the city's main roads.

Organized by the ecumenical Papuan Council of Churches and native Papuan Catholic priests, this demonstrative Way of the Cross aimed to be a moment of prayer. However, it is not difficult to understand that it also aimed to draw the pope’s attention to their plights.

“With the Holy Cross, Jesus our Savior, we believe that in Him there is a way out [for Papua],” says Father John Bunay, the coordinator for the indigenous Catholic priests.

A cry for help

Indigenous Papuan Catholics have tirelessly attempted to attract the pope’s attention to the crisis that they have been facing for more than six decades.

The Papuans accuse the Indonesian government of illegally occupying their land and oppressing them, and they seek self-determination rights in their free homeland. However, the Indonesian government calls it a secessionist move and faces it with military power.

Suffering from Indonesia’s military oppression, human rights abuse, land dispossession and environmental destruction, Papuans have expressed their situation in strong terms like genocide and ecocide. 

In 2016, a group of Papuan Catholic activists delivered a message through a noken (traditional Papua net bag) to a delegation of Pacific bishops during their visit to Jayapura.

The Indonesian bishops who hosted the visit prevented Papuan activists from directly speaking with the delegation. The Papuan activists requested that the Pacific bishops bring the Papuan cause to the attention of Pacific Christian communities and the Holy See, as the Indonesian Church “is largely silent… and does not give voice to our cry for justice.”

For the pontiff’s visit to Indonesia, Papuan Catholics have prepared a book to be delivered to him. Written by 35 authors in Bahasa Indonesia with an Italian translation, the book is entitled “Prayers and Hopes of Papuans to the Holy Father Pope Francis.”

It says, “We are in danger, Holy Father. Please raise your voice and take action to save us from the threat of extinction.”

The book was to be given to the Indonesian bishops through Bishop Yanuarius You of Jayapura and delivered to the pope in Jakarta.

Will the Indonesian bishops deliver the message to the pope? If the pope finally gets the message, will he listen and take action?

Capitalism, new colonialism, genocide

In his visit to Bolivia in 2015, Pope Francis talked about unbridled capitalism and new forms of colonialism. He asked for forgiveness for the sins committed by the Catholic Church against native Americans during the conquest of America. 

He then denounced “an unfettered pursuit of money” as “the dung of the devil.”

“Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home, sister, and mother Earth,” he said 

He also raised concerns over the violence suffered by minorities and marginalized groups across the globe, which he called a “third world war” and a “genocide.”“In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.”

Interestingly, the pope is also self-critical about persons of the Catholic Church. “I say this to you with regret: many grave sins were committed against the native peoples of America in the name of God.” 

He added, “I humbly ask forgiveness, not only for the offenses of the Church herself but also for crimes committed against the native peoples during the so-called conquest of America.” 

Sin now and apologize later? 

A major cause of the problems of indigenous Papuans is undoubtedly the “dung of the devil” — a new form of colonialism and a form of genocide — that Pope Francis enunciated in Bolivia. I doubt the pope will deliver such a solid prophetic speech during this visit to Indonesia. 

Harmony or inter-religious peace seems to be the focus of the pope’s visit. This goal has also become the overarching framework of the diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Indonesia.

As a moderate Muslim-majority country, Indonesia is considered a key partner in the project of peace building between the West and the Islamic world. I am unsure whether the pope will risk speaking the truth about Papua to Indonesian political and economic elites.

There are other reasons for such a doubt.

Harmony and unreserved loyalty to the state have also become the guiding principle of the Indonesian Catholic communities’ relationship with the Indonesian state (and corporations) in West Papua.

In a situation where Catholics are a minority, Catholic communities need to show their loyalty publicly, as expressed in the infamous mantra of “100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian.”

This nationalistic and patriotic position is appropriate in the Indonesian context. But in West Papua, it has become an ultra-nationalist force that undermines the Catholic principle of love, compassion, and social justice.

The Catholic Church in West Papua has a strong record of human rights work, especially through its justice and peace commissions. Several pastors and religious congregations have also been working in West Papua to defend Papuans’ social, political, and economic rights — sometimes against the Indonesian Church elites’ will.

However, the Catholic Church has also been protested against for their silence amidst racial discrimination, continued human rights violations, and the expansion of extractive industries, including palm oil plantations in their congregations’ territory, not to mention their slow response to the demand of their indigenous congregations to appoint more indigenous Church workers.

The Indonesian Catholic Church has never crafted an official policy of respecting indigenous self-determination.

For them, the problem in West Papua is the lack of development; thus, Indonesian state-led and corporate-driven development is the solution.

It is this focus on development — more specifically, a paternalistic attitude to bring progress for Papuans, which they view as backward and left-behind — that brings the Catholic Church into a close partnership with the government and corporations.

While indigenous congregations, including the predominantly Catholic Awyu tribes, resist expanding palm oil operations to their land, the bishop accepted funds from a palm oil company — PT Tunas Sawa Erma (Korindo Group) — from 2021 to 2024.

Part of the money is used to finance the “Pastor Bonus” minor seminary of Merauke diocese. The bishop also dissolved the justice and peace commission, which had long worked with communities like the Awyu.

In another remarkable case, Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar of Merauke — now retired — repeatedly made public statements defending the Indonesian state and condemning Papuans’ political lobbying for their right to self-determination.

In an apologetic presentation during the Pacific bishops’ visit in 2016, Bishop Ladjar upheld development and condemned the Papuan resistance group as “political troublemakers” who “create problems for the community.” He claimed government-led development was the only solution to the Papuan conflict.

In another statement released jointly with other Church leaders in 2017, he declared, “We, the churches in Papua, firmly support… the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.”

Pope Francis would not risk openly confronting the Indonesian state on its operation in West Papua. However, as the Papuans had long expected and prayed for, he could say similar words that he prophetically asserted in Bolivia in 2015. 

Will he apologize for the past and ongoing Catholic attitude towards the indigenous people of West Papua? Will the pope save the Indonesian Church elites from their spiritual deafness to the cry of the Papuans?

If he does, the papal visit will be a blessing to the Indonesian Catholic Church elites and the Papuan congregations.

Cypri Jehan Paju Dale is an anthropologist working on Indigenous Christianities and Politics of Development in West Papua. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.