The Silent Collusion: When the Indonesian Church Chooses Power Over Justice

In a 2019 interview with 'Catholic Life', Jakarta’s Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo offered a classic example of polished indifference: 

“Many people comment on Papua but have never been there. The reality of Papua is very complex, it cannot be resolved in the short term.” 

Ah yes, complexity—the favorite excuse of those unwilling to act!

Then, in 2021, the same 74-year-old Javanese prelate dropped any pretense of neutrality: 

“The official stance of the Catholic Church regarding the Papua issue is very clear, namely to support the stance of the (Indonesian) government, because it is guaranteed by international law.”

Meaning : we side with the powerful, even if it means turning our backs on the oppressed.

These statements landed like daggers in the hearts of Papuans. Apparently, solving the slow-motion tragedy unfolding in Papua is a job for bureaucrats and distant policymakers—not for shepherds of souls. And certainly not at the cost of offending Jakarta.

As the crisis in Papua rages on into 2025—military crackdowns, forced displacements, and massacres—the Indonesian Church hierarchy has found refuge in its favorite stance: total, calculated silence. Not a single word from Cardinal Suharyo. The bishops have zipped their lips. Why? Fear? Apathy? Complicity?

In conversations with Indonesian Catholics, the justifications tumble out. “They’re trying not to inflame tensions.” “There’s quiet diplomacy happening behind the scenes.” But only one friend had the spine to say it straight: “Almost all Church leaders in this country are losers. They are like hired shepherds who do not hesitate to sacrifice their sheep for their own safety.”

And who can blame that view?

Just look at the headlines. In East Nusa Tenggara, the Diocese of Maumere’s very own company, PT Kristus Raja, forcibly evicted indigenous people from their land. Yes, the Church evicted the poor. In South Papua, the Bishop of Merauke openly backed a massive deforestation scheme—two million hectares—for so-called “strategic” state projects. Never mind that this defies everything the Church claims to stand for. The trees fall, the land burns, and the bishop nods in approval.

Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:16: “You will know them by their fruits.” And the rotten fruit of the Indonesian Church is now impossible to ignore!

So what can Papuans expect from the Church? Absolutely nothing. The Church is no longer the voice of the voiceless. It has become a mouthpiece for the regime.

A Church that watches in silence as the poor are brutalized is a dead Church. A Church that sides with tyrants and corporations is a disgrace to the Gospel. There is nothing holy about collusion. There is no dignity in cowardice dressed as diplomacy.

The Church was meant to defend the marginalized, not benefit from their dispossession. But in Indonesia, the bishops have made their choice. 

They’ve traded the cross for contracts, the pulpit for politics. And that is why today, in West Papua, we stand alone!

Written by Wim Anemeke

Papuan Catholic Layman

Note:

West Papua, a former Dutch colony, declared its independence on December 1, 1961. But it was swiftly annexed by Indonesia via the fraudulent 1969 "Act of Free Choice"—a referendum where only 1,026 handpicked Papuans voted under military duress. Since then, an estimated 500,000 Papuans have been killed. In recent months alone, state-led violence has escalated, especially in the highlands, with reports of torture, shootings, and mass displacement. Thousands have been forced to flee, and the so-called defenders of justice remain complicit—in silence.