Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta called Pope Francis’ Se-ptember visit “an opportunity for Indonesian Catholics to explore and practice his humanitarian messages.”
“Indeed, the physical presence of Pope Francis is very important and very happy [occasion] for us,” Suharyo said in a video that the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference released on April 8, six months ahead of the visit.
The 73-year-old Church leader wanted Catholics to pay attention to Francis’ messages and thoughts as they prepare to celebrate his physical presence in the country. Papal messages “should also concern us, and we intend to study those messages,” he added. Suharyo said the last two critical papal messages in the Indonesian context were on human respon-sibility to protect the environment in his encyclical Laudato si and about the importance of maintai-ning brotherhood in Fratelli tutti. Suharyo described them as bri-lliant ideas “not in the sense of being great, but very important for the history of mankind in our time.”
The cardinal further hoped that the physical presence of the pope would encourage Indonesian Catholics to study his teachings and try to find ways to implement them.
The video showed Suharyo speaking with Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung, president of the bishops’ confe-rence. Subianto said the confe-rence deliberately announced the pope’s visit on Annunciation Day because it was good news for In-donesia.
He said Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Indonesia from Sept. 3 to 6, as communicated by Msgr Piero Pioppo, the apostolic nuncio to Indonesia, in a note to the country’s minister of foreign affairs on March 5. “Of course, the certainty of Pope Francis’ arrival to Indo-nesia is still waiting for an official announcement from the govern-ment and the Vatican,” Subianto said.