Share the Gospel with joy, pope tells Indonesia's churchworkers

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) — The Christian call to share the Gospel is not about trying to win converts at all costs, but about living in a way that exudes Christian joy and always treats others with respect, Pope Francis told churchworkers in Indonesia.

“Proclaiming the Gospel does not mean imposing our faith or placing it in opposition to that of others, but giving and sharing the joy of encountering Christ, always with great respect and fraternal affection for everyone,” the pope told bishops, priests, religious and catechists at a meeting Sept. 4.

Pope Francis asked Indonesian Catholics to be “prophets of communion in a world where the tendency to divide, impose and provoke each other seems to be constantly increasing.”

Welcoming Pope Francis to Jakarta’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunyamin of Bandung, president of the Indonesian bishops’ conference, told him the bishops hope his visit will prompt Catholics to “increasingly seek an encounter with God that manifests the joy of the Gospel, creates a culture of encounter in which we see others as a brother or sister, and restores the integrity of creation by listening to the cry of the poor and of the earth, our common home.”

Pope Francis delivers his speech to government and political leaders, diplomats and representatives of civil society at Istana Negara, a national palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 4, 2024. Indonesian President Joko Widodo is seated next to the pope. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

In his speech to the group, Pope Francis focused on the theme the bishops chose for his visit: “Faith — Fraternity — Compassion.”

Those Christian values, he said, can coincide easily with “Pancasila,” Indonesia’s founding philosophy that emphasizes five principles: belief in one God, a just and civilized citizenry, unity, democracy and social justice.

Indonesia has some 276 million people and about 87 percent of them are Muslim, according to government statistics. The Vatican estimates that 3 percent of the population is Catholic, which equates to about 8.3 million people.

Father Pilifur Junianto, a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, traveled from Batam to meet the pope. He said Catholics in Indonesia practice “silaturahmi,” which “means we encounter others — other religions, other cultures. We visit each other on our feast days,” especially when members of the same family or close neighbors belong to different religions.

“As Catholics, we are focused on its meaning as universal — we can accept others,” he said. “Our main service as Catholics is education — schools and universities. We can influence all our students,” including many who are not Catholic. “That way we can help implement ‘Pancasila.'”

Brother Ivan, a member of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mercy, who does not use his last name, said it was overwhelming to be in the cathedral with Pope Francis, who is “very humble and an amazing pope.”

Although for the most part, hundreds of women religious sat on one side of the church while priests and brothers sat on the other, Brother Ivan sat with the Sisters of Our Lady of Amersfoort who run the school where he teaches. The sisters declined an interview request as they waited for vespers to begin.

Schoenstatt Father Matius Pawai, pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Jakarta, was seated near the back of the cathedral. The priests and sisters near the front, he said, arrived at 11:30 a.m. for the 4:30 p.m. meeting with the pope; he didn’t arrive until noon when the temperature hit 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

After a woman and a young man gave brief testimonies about their ministries as catechists, Pope Francis told the crowd that catechists have the most important role in the church, followed by religious sisters, then priests and bishops. It was just one of many off-the-cuff comments the 87-year-old pope made during the meeting.

Pope Francis told the churchworkers that Indonesia’s natural beauty should remind people that God gives human beings all good things. “There is not an inch of the marvelous Indonesian territory, nor a moment in the lives of its millions of inhabitants that is not a gift from God, a sign of his gratuitous and everlasting love as Father.”

“Looking at all we have been given with the humble eyes of children helps us to believe, to recognize ourselves as small and beloved and to cultivate feelings of gratitude and responsibility,” he told them.

The variety found in humanity also is a gift from God, he said, and a call to live as brothers and sisters with all. “No two drops of water are alike, nor are two brothers or sisters, not even twins are completely identical. Living out fraternity, then, means welcoming each other, recognizing each other as equal in diversity.”

Faith and recognizing each other as brothers and sisters, the pope said, must lead to compassion — not just giving alms to the poor, but drawing close to them, helping them stand and fighting for justice on their behalf.

“This doesn’t mean being a communist,” he said. “It means charity — love.”

“What keeps the world going is not the calculations of self-interest, which generally end up destroying creation and dividing communities,” the pope said, “but offering charity to others. Compassion does not cloud the true vision of life. On the contrary, it makes us see things better, in the light of love.”