Catholics in Lombok

Catholic church in Praya, central Lombok

History of the church of St. Johannes

In 1958, a small Catholic society was established in this area. The church was burned in 1998 by Muslims that did not accept the presence of the church in their society. They have until now not been given the necessary licence to reopen the church, and it seemed unlikely that they would in near feature. The law says that there has to be 60 people from the society accepting an opening of a church, and that a minimum of 90 members is necessary.

When we visited the church society we met a man called the legislator of the church in the house of the former priest, now their holy house. We did not learn the actual position or work tasks of the legislator, but got the impression that he was the head of this church community without the religious education to perform any ceremonies.

The church society in Praya
This church now has 50 members from 13 families, and most of the followers are old people. Since they are not allowed to use the church, they are sometimes permitted to carry out their ceremonies in the City Hall. We got the impression that during their ceremonies they often experienced interruptions of various kinds. It could be that chairs they were using were needed for something else during the ceremony, and also that the space was needed in the middle of a ceremony. According to people we talked with:

‘ We know we are a minority, so it is okay.’

Rituals and ceremonies

The only ritual still held in this church community is baptism. They have a house where they meet to pray and where the priest from Mataram sometimes come to hold a mass. Weddings and funerals are only carried out in Mataram. The situation for burials is, according to our informant, the same for all religions and the reason is that the cemeteries Praya are full.

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