Will the Pope Visit the Wounded? A Prophetic Cry from West Papua

 Will the Pope Visit the Wounded? A Prophetic Cry from West Papua

Pope Francis is expected to visit Indonesia—the world’s largest Muslim-majority country—Yet, there is one glaring omission on the papal itinerary: West Papua.

Despite being home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the Pacific and the site of ongoing state violence, military occupation, and cultural genocide, West Papua is not on the Pope’s agenda. His Holiness will travel to nearby Papua New Guinea, but will not set foot in the Indonesian-occupied western half of the island.

Why?

Is this omission a deliberate decision by the Holy See? Or has the Indonesian state—determined to suppress global attention to West Papua’s plight—refused access?

Whatever the reason, the result is the same: the wounded are passed by once more.

Vatican Silence or Complicity?

The Vatican is often called the most well-informed sovereign state on Earth. It has nuncios, religious orders, missionaries, and bishops across the globe—including in West Papua. The Holy See is aware of the killings, the forced displacement, the ecological destruction, and the demographic engineering that threatens to wipe out the Indigenous people of West Papua.

And yet, for more than six decades, it has chosen silence.

One may ask: Why does the suffering of God’s people in West Papua seem unworthy of the Vicar of Christ’s voice? Has the Church, once a beacon of hope to the Melanesian people, become a silent witness—or worse, a complicit observer—in their crucifixion?

Betrayal in the Name of Unity?

West Papua was a strong Christian base in the Pacific until the mid-20th century. When Indonesia—then still a fragile postcolonial Muslim-majority state—moved to annex it in the 1960s, the Church could have stood up for truth, justice, and the right of peoples to self-determination.

Instead, many local Church leaders chose to remain silent—or to cooperate with the new occupiers. Like Pontius Pilate, they washed their hands. And like Judas, they betrayed the flock entrusted to their care.

The Vatican’s endorsement—explicit or implicit—of the 1969 so-called "Act of Free Choice" (PEPERA), in which just 1,025 hand-picked Papuans voted under military pressure, remains a deep scar on the conscience of the global Church.

Today: A People Displaced, A Church Disfigured

Today, West Papuans are being pushed to the brink of extinction. In Merauke, a Catholic stronghold, Indigenous Papuans are becoming minorities in their own ancestral land. In Jayapura, the capital, the muezzin’s call now dominates the city’s soundscape, while church bells are increasingly rare.

Even the Church’s face has changed—from an inculturated Papuan church, rooted in Melanesian spirituality, to an Indonesianized institution, often alienated from the people’s suffering.

What good is a Papal visit to Indonesia if it skips the bleeding wound that is West Papua?

A Parable of Our Time

This journey risks becoming a modern parable—one in which the Holy Father, like the Priest and the Levite in Luke 10:25–37, crosses to the other side of the road while the wounded Papuan lies bleeding.

But Christ’s call remains the same: Go and do likewise. Go to the margins. Go to the wounded. Go to the forgotten.

If Pope Francis seeks to be the shepherd who smells like the sheep, he must not avoid the stench of blood, fear, and injustice in West Papua.

This is not a political plea—it is a moral and theological one.

West Papuans are not asking for power. They are asking for presence. For recognition. For the Pope to see, listen, and speak.

Sixty years of silence is enough.