BETWEEN PATRIOTISM AND PROPHECY: THE INDONESIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE IN PAPUA AND BEYOND

Indonesian bishops with President Joko Widodo, 2018.

BETWEEN PATRIOTISM AND PROPHECY: THE INDONESIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE IN PAPUA AND BEYOND

Abstract

Despite its minority status, the Catholic Church in Indonesia has exerted considerable influence in the political and cultural development of the modern nation-state. However, its consistent alignment with state power—particularly in relation to the militarized integration of contested territories such as Papua and East Timor—raises pressing ethical and theological questions. This essay explores the historical evolution of Catholic nationalism in Indonesia, the Church’s complicity with authoritarian regimes, and its silence on egregious human rights violations, ultimately questioning the moral viability of a Church that chooses national loyalty over prophetic witness.

I. Introduction

The Catholic Church in Indonesia represents a paradox. While comprising only about 3% of the national population, it holds a visible and often privileged position in the country’s political and civic landscape. As a minority in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesian Catholics have historically pursued integration through an emphasis on loyalty to the Republic. This essay interrogates the implications of that loyalty—particularly in situations where the state itself becomes the agent of injustice. Drawing on both historical precedents and contemporary developments, we argue that the Indonesian Catholic Church faces a theological crisis: whether to remain "100% Indonesian" at the cost of its Gospel mandate to defend the poor, the persecuted, and the colonized.

II. The Genesis of Catholic Nationalism: Soegijapranata and the Birth of “100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian”

The concept of “100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian” was coined by Msgr. Albertus Soegijapranata, the first native Indonesian bishop and a seminal figure in the nation’s early independence struggle. At the heart of this motto was a dual fidelity: religious piety and national patriotism. During the Indonesian War of Independence (1945–1949), many Catholics took up arms, firmly placing the Church within the nationalist narrative. However, while this motto helped Catholics survive and thrive politically in a nascent republic, it also laid the groundwork for a problematic entanglement between ecclesial identity and state ideology.

This synthesis became even more pronounced during the so-called "liberation campaigns" of West Papua (1961) and East Timor (1975). Indonesian Catholics, often with ecclesiastical endorsement, supported these operations as expressions of national unity. Yet from the perspective of international human rights and decolonial ethics, these were acts of military annexation, marked by repression, demographic engineering, and cultural erasure. In both cases, the Church rarely—if ever—offered a dissenting voice.

III. Collaboration and Silence under Authoritarianism

The authoritarian rule of Soeharto (1966–1998) tested the prophetic integrity of religious institutions in Indonesia. While Muslim and Protestant leaders were occasionally repressed or co-opted, the Catholic hierarchy largely adopted a position of strategic accommodation. One of the most prominent examples is the role of General Leonardus Benjamin Moerdani, a devout Catholic and Soeharto’s most trusted military commander. Moerdani was instrumental in military campaigns in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua—operations widely criticized for systematic human rights abuses.

Throughout the 32 years of military rule, the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI) issued few public statements of resistance. When it did, the language was often couched in vague pastoral terms that avoided direct confrontation with the regime. Most strikingly, there was no collective ecclesiastical outcry in the face of what international observers have labeled the genocide of more than 200,000 East Timorese. The absence of ecclesial condemnation undermines the Church’s commitment to its own social doctrine, particularly as expressed in documents such as Gaudium et Spes and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis.

IV. Complicity in the Democratic Era: Papua and the Crisis of Moral Witness

Following the fall of Soeharto and the democratic transition beginning in 1998, one might have expected a revitalization of the Church’s prophetic role. Yet the case of West Papua tells a different story. Amid a prolonged humanitarian crisis involving military violence, displacement, and cultural marginalization, the Catholic hierarchy has largely echoed the official position of the state.

In 2021, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo declared that “the official stance of the Catholic Church on the Papua issue is very clear, which is to support the position of the Indonesian government, because it is guaranteed by international law.” This statement is not only legally disputable—given the irregularities surrounding the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”—but theologically problematic. Catholic social teaching affirms the right of peoples to resist oppression (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, §157), and upholds the preferential option for the poor and colonized.

Furthermore, Suharyo’s endorsement of the state position illustrates the enduring grip of nationalism on ecclesial discourse in Indonesia. Rather than standing in solidarity with Papuans as an oppressed people, the Church appears more concerned with maintaining political legitimacy and avoiding confrontation. In doing so, it relinquishes its role as a voice for the voiceless—effectively sanctifying state violence in the name of national unity.

V. Political Preferences and the Death of Discernment

A 2024 Litbang Kompas survey revealed that the majority of Indonesian Catholics supported Prabowo Subianto—an ex-general implicated in human rights abuses in Timor-Leste and Papua—as their presidential candidate. This political preference, following a decade of support for Joko Widodo's administration marked by nepotism and centralization, suggests a worrying trend: the erosion of Catholic political discernment.

The Church, as a moral community, is called not to align with power for its own sake, but to exercise judgment grounded in the values of justice, truth, and the dignity of the human person. Yet the growing proximity between ecclesial leaders and military or political elites—often photographed in harmonious settings—raises the specter of moral compromise. As Pope Francis has repeatedly warned, when the Church becomes “too closely aligned with power, it loses its prophetic voice and its credibility.”

VI. Conclusion: From “Dumb Patriotism” to Prophetic Catholicism

The motto “100% Catholic, 100% Indonesian” was once a powerful symbol of religious and national integration. But in today’s context—marked by ongoing military occupation in Papua, democratic backsliding, and the silencing of critical voices—it risks becoming an empty slogan, or worse, a theological cover for injustice.

True patriotism does not consist in blind loyalty to the state, but in loving one’s nation enough to challenge its sins. The Catholic Church in Indonesia must reclaim its prophetic heritage—not by abandoning national identity, but by transcending it in the name of the Gospel. For only when the Church dares to speak against the powers that be, in solidarity with the crucified peoples of history, can it be said to truly follow the One who was crucified by empire.