Java and Bali

chapter 15 Java and Bali

In the general history of our subject edited by Martinus Muskens in the early 1970s, Jakarta is given the honorific name of Mater Ecclesia omnium Ecclesiarum or ‘Mother Church of all (other) Churches’.1 This is historically true, because the new presence of Catholics in Indonesia started in 1808 in Batavia/Jakarta with the return of Catholic clergy after an absence of more than 200 years. Jakarta was the seat of the colonial and later the independent Indonesian government. It was also the most important place for policy, strategy and maintenance of the structure of the Catholic community in the vast country. But the whole island of Java could never show a large number of Catholics. Besides the modest number of 77,273 European and Eurasian Catholics, there were in 1940 only 40,616 native Catholics in Java, most Chinese in the larger towns and Javanese in Central and East Java.2 This had grown to more than one million in 2000 (table 24), but it is still a tiny minority. Table 24 Statistics for Javanese Christians and Catholics in 20003

Province Number of Percentage Only Catholics Total Christians Christians, includ- population ing Protestants (%)

Jakarta 837,682 10.04 394,332 – 4.7% 8,361,079 West Java4 703,604 1.9 83,119 – 0.23% 35,724,092 Banten 213,135 2.63 53,432 – 0.5% 8,098,277 Central Java5 874,245 2.83 343,266 – 1.09% 31,223.259 Yogyakarta 245,062 7.85 151,497 – 4.85% 3,121,045 East Java 799,276 2.3 264,901 – 0.75% 34,765,990 Total 3,673,004 3.03 1,290,547 – 1.06% 121,293,750

1 Muskens (ed) 1973–74:IIIB, 729. 2 Steenbrink 2007:355. 3 Suryadinata et al. 2003:70 with additions from kwi 2001 for the Catholics. 4 For Catholics in West Java we have taken the figures of the diocese of Bandung; for Banteng the diocese of Bogor. 5 This is a combination of the dioceses of Purwokerto and Semarang, but the figures for the Special Territory of Yogyakarta are here taken separately.

This modest numerical presence is in contrast to the rather great visibility and prominent public presence of Catholics in social and political life. In the centre of all major towns the Catholic cathedrals are situated on prominent places (often next to the major Protestant churches) as a heritage from the colonial times. Medan Merdeka, the largest and busiest square in Jakarta, has public buildings like the presidential palace and the national museum. In its north-western corner we find the three religious buildings: the grandiose Istiqlal Mosque has on one side the round dome of the Protestant Emmanuel Church as a neighbour, on the other side the neo-gothic Catholic cathedral. Next to the cathedral are the great buildings of the Ursuline schools and not so far away the Jesuit Kanisius high school. These two schools are among the most prestigious schools of the capital and also many prominent Muslims send their children to these Catholic institutions. The most prestigious daily newspaper in Jakarta is Kompas, sometimes nicknamed Komando Pastor although this national daily is very cautious not to show its Catholic origin. The largest and most luxurious bookshops are owned by Gramedia, an enterprise that was started by the same firm as the newspaper Kompas. The best-known weekly Tempo is also from the same editors. This public visibility of Catholics (and Protestants) in large buildings, schools and publications has brought the social scientist Willem Frederik Wertheim to a qualification of Indonesian Muslims as a ‘Majority with an Inferiority Complex’.6 At a distance of some 800 km from the capital Jakarta, Surabaya is the sec- ond largest city, an industrial and harbour centre. Yogyakarta is a main centre for academic education and also for Javanese culture. Because of the important position of the island of Java as the place where national politics were decided, and because of the great variety of regions in Java, we will start this chapter with a chronological overview, according to a national political scheme rather than the internal ecclesiastical dynamics. This is followed by main char- acteristics of the seven dioceses.

Japanese Occupation and Revolution, 1942–1945

After the Japanese army occupied Java in March 1942, there was a general ban on public gatherings for indigenous people and also church meetings were initially not allowed. With the help of Colonel Nomachi, a Japanese Protestant army chaplain, church life for Protestants could be restored, without the Dutch mis- sionaries who had been sent to a detention camp. Some European church

6 Wertheim 1978:206–230.