MAUMERE, Indonesia—Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle. He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia.
MAUMERE, Indonesia—Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle.
Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia. More men are entering seminary, but Yansen and others like him show that Indonesia is not immune from trends contributing to the Catholic Church’s global priest shortage, including fallout from the clergy sex abuse crisis and the pull of the fast-paced modern world.
Asia, along with Africa, has long been seen as the future of the Catholic Church, both in terms of the number of baptized faithful and the number of men and women who decide to become priests or nuns. “And yet we still appeal youths to have courage to make a decision to take up church vocation, and the support from their families and society,” he added.
During Pope John Paul II’s visit to Indonesia in 1989, he hailed the faithfulness of people in Flores and the flourishing number of priests and nuns. Sex abuse scandals and other unflattering news reports emerging from the Vatican and elsewhere contributed to Yansen’s decision to leave the path to priesthood, he said.Although the country promotes itself as a bastion of tolerance in the Muslim world, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.
“Diversity of Indonesia is a reality that we cannot deny,” Hormat said. “We cannot tolerate any actions that aim to eliminate certain religion or race from this country.”
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