8. When is there enough religion? About the 10% religious tax

This is the one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"


As I mentioned already in the section below, on 27 August we had a long talk with staff of the theological faculty of the Protestant UKIM University in Ambon. I was astonished to see such conservative, traditional Calvinist Christians. They consider Ambon ideally as a Christian dominated region, an Indian Sion in the style of the book by Schutte and Niemeyer. They have in mind a Christian society that is very strongly dominated by church life and in fact by the ordained ministers. (This is a great difference from the periods before 1935 when there were only few ordained ministers and the local congregations were only served by catechists/teachers, the guru jemaat. One of their great problem, they said, was still the shortage of ministers. Ideally even small villages of twenty families should be served by a minister, not only for the Sunday services, but nearly every evening and morning. The great problem is the shortage of money in the church (ministers are paid directly by the central office of the synod in Ambon, for the whole province of the Moluacces, until Babar, Kei and Tanimbar islands).
In the discussion I put forward the case of the Protestant faculty in Tomohon where the number of new students had been reduced because there is an surplus of theologians and graduates from the theological school in Minhasa have to wait several years before they can start their vicariate (in fact a period of practical training in a local congregation). After finishing the vicariate they still have to wait several years before they can be ordained and nominated full minister.

Both in Minahasa and in Ambon there are no complaints about the liberality of the faithful. This is, however, still somewhat stronger in Ambon. The church has envelopes for the tenth (according to Deuteronomy 14:22) where it has been written: perpuluhan, milik Tuhan or: 'the tenth is God's property'. It is even explained with the story of paradise: there were two trees that were forbidden for mankind. In the same way, 10% of all income is owned by God and man would be stealing from the Allmighty if he or she would take it for him or herself.

In this vain we see a tendency for rich congregations to enrich the church buildings and make them more and more beautiful, but as to the ministers, to increase their importance and to minimalize the function of the lay preacher for a small congregation, the guru jemaat. We will see in the discussion with Kees Böhm, that somehow a same tendency also is creaping in the Catholic community, although Böhm himself has another vision.

The photograph reproduced here shows one of the sacristans of this Moluccan Protestant Church, ringing the church bells on a Sunday morning. Also this sacristan wears the traditional formal dress. Many churchgoers of the Protestant church in Ambon were dressed in black.

7. First Impression of Ambon: deeply divided and poor

This is the one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"

We stayed from 20-26 August 2009 in Minahasa and then moved to Ambon, until 2 September. It is quite a change between Minahasa and Ambon. Minahasa survived the economic crisis of 1997 quite well (thanks to agricultural export products, mostly coffe and cloves). It remained free from the inter-religious strife of 1999-2004. Moreover, although in both areas Catholics are small in number, about 5%, in Minahasa it is mostly original Minahasa people, while in Ambon most Catholics are from Kei, Tanimbar or Java and Flores. Another important difference is the strong Muslim presence in Ambon (about 50%) and the remnants of the civil war between 1999-2004 that left a strong impact on Ambon society.
Our arrival at Ambon airport was quite symbolic. We were welcomed by Prof. Dr. Saleh Putuhena, a retired professor at the UIN, the State Islamic University of Makassar. Saleh Putuhena had written a dissertation on the haj by Indonesians in the colonial period under my (and Taufiq Abdullah's) supervision. Nowadays Putuhena is quite active in interfaith relations in Ambon, because he is original from Ambon. Later on our trip we met Putuhena again in Makassar, where we had to wait for our connecting flight to Papua and where he took us to the beach to see sunset and wait for the breaking of fasting that day (see picture below).


Putuhena brought us to the MSC house in Batu Gantung, until 1999 a mixed Muslim-Christian district of Ambon, but now 'cleansed' and turned into a fully Christian district, like all districts of Ambon now are either Christian or Muslim. The civil war has ended, but reconciliation is still a long way to go and relations have become more difficult that they were before the war.
We were welcomed in the MSC house by 93 year old bishop Andreas Sol, by the parish priest Wim Zomer (who came much later) and by MSC regional superior Arkadius Setitit. In the main room, as well as in our bedroom there was a welcome text that I show below.


Bishop Andreas Sol always has been much interested in the history of mission. This was not always without missionary goals. In the 1990s he dreamed of proofs that could testify that already in 600 an establishment of Nestorian Christian had a church in Baros, West-Sumatra. He planned already a celebration of 1400 years of Christianity in Indonesia for the year 2000. This was important, because in this case the Christians would have arrived before the birth of Islam and were then longer in Indonesia than Islam. Unfortunately for Sol, the evidence given in the 1973-4 edition of the great History of the Catholic Church in Indonesia was not solid and the idea had to be dropped.


Although Catholics are only a small part of the population of Ambon, and although they know that further growth is not really possible, also this group has not really given up the idea that it is necessary to strive for bigger and more: not only an impossible, but also a threatening dream as I have exposed below. This is as threatening as the illusion of an Islamic State. Both dreams are not innocent, but from time to time really dangerous.
Ambon is an island for fish: seldom we have eaten so much and delicious fresh fish as in Ambon. We had it already in the first evening, when we took dinner after breaking the fast together with Putuhena and Abidin Wakano, director of the Interfidei office of Ambon. Later he would invite me for a talk preceding the breaking of the fast and where some 80 young people, both Christian and Muslim, were present. On the photograph below (not taken by myself, but from the Internet) Abidin Wakano is sitting left.


The next morning we had a long meeting with staff of the theological faculty of the Protestant UKIM university. Their campus was twice burned down during the Moluccan Wars, the first time when Dr. Mesakh Tapilatu was in Utrecht for the conference preparing the 'thick book', A History of Christianity in Indonesia, published by Brill, Leiden in 2008. They are now working in hired buildings, while the campus is being rebuilt again. Mesakh Tapilatu showed as the old campus, under reconstruction, but where the remnants of his former house still can be seen.

6. Indonesian Imitations of the Vatican

This is the one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"
Dr. Yong Ohoitimur, our main host and facilitator during the period of encounters in Minahasa, explained the structure of the National Catholic Council (KWI) and the structure of the diocesan offices. They all have imitated the structure of the Roman Curia after Vatican II. In line with the division of the Roman congregations, the national office in Jakarta started in the late 1960s offices (and committees)for inter-religious relations and human rights, for misson, for peace and justice, for catechesis, for theology and many other aspects of Catholic life. Some ro more active than others. In total there are sixteen of these committees in Jakarta. Some are also very close to Vatican Instructions, while others are more looking at the local needs of Indonesian Catholics. On the diocesan level the same committees are instituted, but some of these are quite dormant. One of these committees at the national level is on the education of priests. Here two issues are quite prominent: 1. the preference for diocesan priests among the bishops; 2. seminaries have to be seen as exclusive institutions for the educations of priests, not for lay theologians or catechists or even teachers of religion.
The national committee visited recently the Major Seminary of Pineleng, where both MSC as diocesan candidates for priesthood are educated, but also catechists and teachers of religion (in a special faculty, but classes are quite often together). There was quite recently even a boarding house opened for female students in the Pineleng campus. That is against the strict rules for seminaries from the Vatican. However, the staff of Pineleng Seminary explained to the committee that this was local circumstances and for the next decade the situation would have to remain as it is now.
In the bookshops a publication is sold, written by a lay writer from Solor, John Wolor, Menggugat Identitas Pastor dan Keabsahan Sakramen (Jakarta:Kasih 2009). In 233 the author fights for the great difference between lay people and clergy, more in the style of the magazine Confrontatie, between liberal and tradtional thinkers in Netherlands in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of the text is based on conservative American writings, but there are also some references to the Indonesian situation (like p. 221 about Redemporist versus diocesan clergy in Weetebula, Sumba).
On the whole there were not many problems between liberals and conservatives after Vatican II.

About the Pineleng seminary I include two photographs. Below we see first Dr. Yong Ohoitimur with Mrs Steenbrink-Maas and then the painting behind the main altar of the chapel: painting and woodcarving are made by Jan Boelaars MSC who taught here anthropology for many years, after being active as a scholar and missionary in South Papua: a truly gifted person.

5. Ronald Korompis, Yong Ohoitimur and the establishment of Nikolaus Senior High School, inaugurated by SBY

This is one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"


Ronald Korompis is a very successful business man, born and active in Manado, although now living in Jakarta. He is also a very active an devout Catholic. One of his enterprises is the project Bukit Doa or Mountain of Prayer, an area of 50 hectare, close to Tomohon and only at some 15 km distance from the capital Manado. On this mountain a monumental Way of the Cross with fourteen stations, magnificent bronze statues, a prayer hall, Marian grotto in Lourdes style, a retreat centre for some 150 guests, an amphitheatre for religious performances (but also for grand marriages: Minahasa people like great festivities!) are built. It is fully financed and very well kept by this benevolent devotee. I heard also quite a few Protestants express their admiration for this new religious facility in Minahasa. Especially the grave of Jesus is built in a very suggestive style. Devotees enter a very dark construction and after several curbings they turn towards the light and see the resurrected Christ with his mother in a grotto, after crossing a bridge over a small pond.


Another and even much larger establishment is SMU Santo Nikolaus, also called Lokon College, a boarding school, built close to Tomohon on a large piece of land at a height of 900 m, so quite cool in the mountainous region southwest of Manado. Some 450 pupils receive their education in this place, girls and boys, Christians and Muslims. In accordance to the small number of Catholics in Minahasa the majority of the Christians are Protestant and therefore Catholics are a minority in this school. The pupils are not only accepted from Minahasa, but from all East Indonesia. The first pictures I took here were from two Papua girls, originating from Timika.


The name Nikolaus has been taken from bishop Nico Verhoeven MSC. The school has all facilities: many computers, excellent teachers, full boarding. Quality of the buildings is quite different from the usual boarding schools, seminaries and convents that we saw on this trip. This is really a new standard. Only about 40% of the parents are ably to pay the school fee. The others are receiving subsidies from the foundation. Dr. Yong Ohoitimur, a very energetic MSC priest, professor at the Major Seminary of Pineleng, also teaching at the Salesian University and the Protestant University, works here one day per week as secretary of the foundation that takes care for the daily management. His major assistant is a retired Chinese-Indonesian businessman from Jakarta (not Mr Korompis), who controls the financial administration. Because of the quality of the school and to honour this charity in the field of education, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono opened the institution in 2006. It is not a formal Catholic institution and definitely not under the diocesan responsibility, but there are many crosses and statues of Mary in this compound where many students walk around with their laptop, a picture that looks like the common scene at Utrecht University. I did not take enough pictures here and therefore only two images: of the SBY signature and the energetic Dr. Yong Ohoitimur MSC in front of one of the buildings.


Just two concluding remarks for this section: the impressive network of primary and secondary schools, that was set up by the Catholics since the beginning of the 20th century is now still maintained, but the number of schools is in many regions reduced because of the availability of government schools all over the country. As to new educational initiatives, the academic level is more attractive for bishops and Catholic organisations in general. Also in Manado the Salesian University is one of the more prestigious initiatives by the Manado diocese. However, in East Indonesia with its many underpopulated regions, where secondary education is often not easily available at short distance and boarding schools are important (especially in the Moluccas and Papua) this initiative seems to be quite important, especially because the high quality in the Lokon Nikolaus College.
Religion always or at least in most circumstances needs a vehicle: politics, social action, or just simple possibilities for social interaction, education and medical care, beautiful architecture or music: they make good combinations with religion, intensify its effect and impact on humanity.

4. Han Gerritse TDB, a modest founder of a new religious order

This is the one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"



There are many young priests, even more religious sisters in Indonesia, but vocations to the lay brothers are rather few. Several Dutch orders who have worked in Indonesia could not gain enough members to continue their existence in the new country, while they are no longer able to attract new members in the Netherlands either.
One of these order are the the Congregatio Septem Dolorum, with a central house in Voorhout. They have a branch in Indonesia since 1948 that was not really flourishing. In 2001 they had only five Indonesian members and were about to die. they once had 20 members but then the growth had stopped and most had returned to the life of lay people. But then a very charismatic sister of East Flores, Sister Gabriella PRR said to the last Dutch friar: 'This should never happen. I will send you good candidates. A few months later she sent 4 candidates from Larantuka and this continued. Now there are 17 young members of the TDB or Tujuh Duka Bunda Maria, most of them in North Sulawesi.
We visited Han Gerritse in Tomohon at a moment when Theo Blokland, prominent member of the congregation in Voorhout, was visiting the young branch, that is formally an independent congregation of diocesan scale (Manado). Still, friar Han Gerritse happened to find the two volumes of the Indonesian translation of Catholics in Indonesia in the library of the small convent and took time to show us the social activities of this young community. A Credit Union, in cooperation with Rabobank Microcrediet had proved to be a failure, although in many other regions of Indonesia credit unions are a major social activity of the Catholics. A major success was an education for physiotherapy, the only one in East Indonesia, besides one in Makassar. The institute is a department of the Salesian University, established in 2000 and has attracted quite good attention in the region and even abroad. On a regular basis a few Dutch students follow here courses of one year to integrate the technical and social aspects of their medical specialization. A new building was about the be inaugurated a few days later. There are some 140 students at the college that is recognised by the Indonesian government. The college has received in the beginning much support from Cordaid.

Hans Gerritse has established in the 1970s and 1980s a new initiative: medical care in primary schools with regular control of health of all pupils and a programme to start prevention of major diseases, in cooperation with the Catholic hospital Gunung Maria or Marian Hill in Woloan. Due to lack of finances the hospital stopped this facility in the 1990s, much to the regret of Gerritse who considered this programme as one of his most important initiatives. To honour him, we add on top of this section a picture of this modest man who took us not only to his various foundations, but also to some of the most beautiful panoramic places of this mountainous region.
Another, much more modest activity is a small workshop to make Christmas cribs. Pupils from primary schools receive a training to make the figures from plaster and to paint these. They earn enough to pay their schools fees with this work that they can do after school. See the picture below.


A much more shocking activity of the new religious order is a home for very serious handicapped children, both mentally and physically. Its was initiated by a Dutch lady in cooperation with Han Gerritse (a nurse by profession). In a very well equiped house some 25 children receive full care, with a good team of nurses and other health workers. In many parts of Indonesia parents do not really know how to care for these children and there are no government facilities for this kind of care. The young congregation of the seven distresses of the Mother Mary see this as one of their special vocations.


Han Gerritse is a quite sober and practical man, who could very well be seen as a development worker in the field of human care. But he is also the spiritual leader of the new religious order. Besides running his practical projects he is also the leader of the noviciate, takes care for the training in meditation and spiritual development of the young members of the order. In his simple premises there is not only a chapel, but also a special room for meditation (where the friars are sitting on the ground) and everywhere in the house one may find various examples of the image of the pieta, from western-style kitch to a more Javanese-style image, as shown below.

3. Gunung Kasih, The Mountain of Love in Minahasa. A sign of gratitude for the escape from religious strife.

This is one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"

Minahasa once was called the 12th province of the Netherlands. Nowhere in Indonesia the Dutch language was so popular. Many of its citizens entered the colonial army. Dutch was popular in education in the colonial period and the vast majority of the population had embraced the religion of the coloniser, Christianity. An other aspect of Minahasa is that it was in the early 19th century so oppressed (through compulsary crops of coffee to be sold at a low price, read again the beginning of Max Havelaar) that the population had no other way than just to give in to Dutch demands.
Whatever it may be, Minahasa was quite lucky during the economic crisis of the period 1997-2002: its coffee brought many more rupiahs, thanks to the devaluation of the Indonesian currency.
When in 1999 the Ambonese civil wars started, many refugees came to Minahasa (also from Ternate and other section of Halmahera). There were Protestant and also some Catholic militias who wanted to fight back. During a walk through Jalan Sam Ratulangi we saw a sign of the LC Legium Christum or the army of Christ. It could have turned into a violent group, but finally it was not more than a group of Catholic youngsters who now control the surroundings of the Catholic Churches at Christmas and Eastern, often together with Protestants and Muslims. They have some kind of uniform and seem to be not too active for the rest of the year.


In this weekend the Legium Christum held its national convention in Surakarta and the local leader was not present and could not be interviewed.

In 2002, as an act of gratitude because the inter-religious wars had not reached, a former governor started the building of an exceptional place of pilgrimage, Gunung Kasih or the Mountain of Love. Amidst a stunning nature reserve, a steep hill with many volcanic outbursts, a way of the cross with fourteen stations was build. On top a plateau was decorated with a common room and a row of five place of worship: from left to right a Catholic Church, a Buddhist and a Hindu shrine, a mosque and a Protestant church. Standing next to each other as a monumental act of grace to God that interreligious harmony was kept in this region and not disturbed through militant groups as elsewhere in the region.



Above Paule Steenbrink-Maas (right) with Kemerlien Ondang, writing a dissertation on the role of women in the interreligious discourse of Indonesia. On top a view of the Balinese-Hindu shrine in the centre of the row of five place of worship. Below an impression of the natural forces present in this special location.

2. The myth of the Islamic State versus the illusion of the whole world for Christ

This is the one of 18 short impressions of the trip of Karel and Pauline Steenbrink to East Indonesia in preparation for the 3d volume of the book "Catholics in Indonesia"

During the visit to Indonesia of August-September 2009, I gave five lectures: to the Catholic seminary of Pineleng and the Protestant University of Tomohon (both Minahasa). In Ambon I gave a talk to the interfaith group headed by Abdurrahman Wakano (Interfidei) and another at the secular mixed Pattimura State University. In Papua I gave a talk to the Franciscan Seminarians of Sentani/Abepura. I had prepared a powerpoint presentation about the religious and social changes in the Netherlands since 1960, from a homogeneous Christian society towards pluralism.


The usual end of a formal lecture: the rector of Pattimura University gives a present to Prof. Steenbrink

In the lecture and more even in the debates the discussion was often about the cause of pluralism: pendatang or migrants are a hot topic. In Ambon and Papua they are now mostly seen as the cause of all problems. In minahasa they feel that they only had a narrow escape from the same problem as the other regions.
Christians are very much afraid for the introduction of sharia law or an Islamic State. But what is the fear with the Muslims? In fact, there is now mutual fear between Muslims and Christians, according to the title of the dissertation by Mujiburrahman (Utrecht 2006): Feeling threatened. Muslim-Christian Relations in Indonesia's New Order. Muslims fear the aggressive preaching and proselytising by Christians and their (impossible but threatening) dream of the whole world for Christ, the whole world accepting Jesus Christ as its saviour. We had quite long debates about this theme, that is usually not seen as aggressive or threatening by Christians. Virtually all agreed that it is not realistic. In fact the words of Qur'an 5:48 are also seen by Christians as more realistic: 'If God so had willed, He could surely have made you all in one single community. But He willed it otherwise, in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed unto you. Vie then with one another in doing good works! Unto God you all return.


Mujiburrahman, author of Feeling Threatened. Lecture at the IAIN of Banjarmasin
But for this moment both the myth of the Islamic State and the Impossible Dream of a Whole World for Christ, still are firmly rooted in the minds and common discourse of Christians and Muslims.



At UKIT, the Protestant University of Tomohon, some 25 students asked for an extra discussion in the afternoon. These were the graduate students. They had some plan in this second meeting: they requested the possibility of some credits after twice listening to my stories and theories. They have to write an essay of 2500 words about 'The danger of outrageous dreams of religious expansion' and send it to karel@steenbrink.nu.