The Church on Lombok

The Catholic Church
Catholicism came to Lombok around 1935; the religion was brought here by the Dutch colonists. RPH Gierlings SVD laid the foundation of the St. Antonio church, which we visited. There were some Catholic families in Lombok who started using an old school building as a church. They had ceremonies every week, and in 1954 they bought the property. This is the place where the current church was built in 1962.

The church has not experienced much discrimination because they are a minority. Discrimination is also difficult to prove, but they sometimes have problems when they need licenses or money, for instance they get less financial support then Islamic organizations. There is no big difference before and after Suharto, but there is more freedom now. The church has a close bond of friendship to the Vatican, every fifth year the bishop reports to the Vatican. There are all together 33 bishops in Indonesia.

The Christian community in Lombok is a small minority. The Catholic priest says that the different religions in Lombok live side by side in harmony. Most people using the Catholic Church on this island come from other places in Indonesia, mainly from Flores, Bali and Java. The riot in 2000 is an example of a religious conflict, when churches were burned by Muslims. The Maria

Immaculate Church in Lombok was burned, but the church is now being rebuilt. Many Christian people had to leave their homes and escape to Bali or Java, and Christian homes where destroyed.

Because most of the Christian people in Lombok are Chinese, there was a problem that many shops where closed because the owners escaped, and there was lack of goods in the shops. The riot was first and foremost a political conflict, and now things are back to normal and people want to put this in the past. After the riot the church got donations from the society and from Rome to rebuild the church, but they didn’t get much money from the government. The Christian people in Lombok also lost some influence after the riot, because many Christians in the government escaped, and the Christian community became smaller.

Ceremonies:
The most important ceremony in the Catholic Church is Easter. They also have baptism, confirmation and wedding ceremonies. There is no problem if a Christian gets married with a Hindu. But if a Christian and a Muslim is getting married, it is more complicated. Then the woman have to convert, the woman normally follows the man. The hallmark of Catholicism is first and foremost the importance of the saints; the most important saint is Virgin Maria.

Society:
The Catholic Church runs a school, among others, with 700 students. There are also students with other religions in the school, and it is usually not problematic that students with different religions study together. About 40% of the students here are ethnic Chinese. The school follow government regalement, but they are allowed holidays during religious festivals. The students pay school fees that depends on the parents’ income, varying between 50 000 150 000 rupees. In addition, the school gets some support from the government. The Catholic Church also runs a hospital in Lombok.

The Protestant Immanuel Church
The first Protestant Church in Indonesia where founded by a Holland colonist, today there is 200 protestant Churches in Indonesia. The one in Lombok was built in 1948, and the members of the Church were first and foremost the colonists, but also people from Timor, Sohloko and Sulawesi. This Church is a national church for the Protestants; the central church is in Jakarta. There are about 650-700 members of the church. They have a mass every day at 07 and 10 in the morning and 18 in the evening. They also arrange social activities every day.

The congregations are from all different classes of the community. They also get the sacrament four times a year, in addition to baptism and confirmation. The congregation are mostly from eastern Indonesia, Maluku, Sulawesi, Timor and Ambon. The Calvinists and the Lutheran are differently organized; the Calvinists are run by the districts, while the Lutherans are run centrally. Because it’s an independent Church they don’t get support from the government, they get most of their economical support from the congregation, mostly from collect in the mass and donations. The Church’ economy will be affected for ten years because of the riot. Now the different religions try to cooperate to avoid a situation like this again.

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