There is a particularly good chance Pope Francis will visit Indonesia next year. However, the Vatican has not released any official confirmation. The Indonesian bishops want Francis to come for Asian Youth Day. The 7th Asian Youth Day is taking place in Yogyakarta, a city on the island of Java, from July 30 to Aug. Read more
Last week 23 bishops made a rare visit to Indonesia’s most easterly province, West Papua. Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have been meeting at St.Anthony’s Pilgrim House, Vanimo, for their Annual General Meeting from 4 to 15 April 2016. The bishops had a meeting with 4 of the 5 bishops of Read more
The Pacific Conference of Churches has asked governments and donors not to attach conditions to relief efforts in the region. The call came as Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Political Affairs, Law and Security visited Fiji. Luhut Binsar Padjaitan was reportedly delivering Fiji an assistance package worth up to US$5 million, plus a contingent of engineers, Read more
A Catholic report has identified a slow motion genocide happening in West Papua amid a growing Islamisation of the area. The report was compiled by the Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission’s Shadow Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua. It came after a visit to West Papua last month by Josephite Sr Susan Read more
In the greatest environmental disaster of the 21st Century (so far), Indonesia has been blotted out by smoke. And the media. I’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypse struck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or how it might be stopped. Read more
About 8,000 Catholics packed an open coastal area on the west side of Dili, Timor Lesté’s capital, to mark 500 years of the Church’s presence in the island nation. The Aug 15 Mass was held at Tasitolu, the site of a 1989 Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II. Catholics came from all over the Read more
West Papua is hoping New Zealand will support its call for a fact finding team to be sent to the region to look into human rights abuses by Indonesia. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua is an observer member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group and wants similar status at the Pacific Islands Forum. Papua Read more
Nick Watt, the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Whanganui was a character witness at the Denpasar, Indonesia, court in early June during Anthony de Malmanche’s trial. de Malmanche was found guilty on Tuesday and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Watt says he has known de Malmanche for four years and been his minister Read more
As Indonesia prepares to execute up to 11 prisoners, including two Australians, a Brazilian and a Nigerian national, amid international uproar, the spotlight has been thrown on the use of the death penalty in the country. There are dozens more prisoners on death row and the government has declared there will be no mercy for Read more
A Brazilian man executed by firing squad in Indonesia was denied the chance to have Catholic last rites before his death. Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, was executed on January 18 at on Nusakambangan, Indonesia’s execution island Moreira was sentenced to death in 2004 after attempting to smuggle 13.4 kilograms of cocaine into Indonesia. The Read more