{"id":43723,"date":"2024-08-31T16:12:25","date_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=43723"},"modified":"2024-08-31T16:12:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:12:27","slug":"catholic-diocese-sues-u-s-government-over-changes-in-green-card-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/08\/31\/catholic-diocese-sues-u-s-government-over-changes-in-green-card-processes\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic diocese sues U.S government over changes in Green Card processes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest<\/strong>, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major has produced 13 bishops, more than 580 diocesan priests and 23 deacons in nearly 70 years of existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Yansen won\u2019t be among them. He tried to shake off what he thought were last-minute jitters before entering the priesthood. Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like I didn\u2019t fit in anymore and that I would be able to do more if I left,\u201d said Yansen, 26, who is now an administrator at a Catholic school, Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis\u2019 upcoming trip to Indonesia<\/strong> is putting a spotlight on the 8.6 million Catholics who make up 3% of the population. It\u2019s a country where religious minorities remain on edge due to militant attacks that have targeted faith groups<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More men are entering seminary, but Yansen and others like him show that Indonesia is not immune from trends contributing to the Catholic Church\u2019s global priest shortage, including fallout from the clergy sex abuse crisis<\/strong> and the pull of the fast-paced modern world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe number of priests is never enough,\u201d said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of St. Peter Major Seminary, which is considered the largest Catholic seminary in the world by enrollment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Indonesia, there 2,466 diocesan priests in Indonesia in 2022, up from 2,203 in 2017, according to Vatican statistics as of Dec. 31, 2022, the last year for which data is available. That number is supplemented by even more religious order priests, such as Jesuits or Franciscans, whose numbers reached 3,437 in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Tanga noted that Indonesia\u2019s population growth is outpacing priesthood vocations. \u201cWe will continue to face a shortage of priests in the future if nothing is done now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asia, along with Africa, has long been seen as the future of the Catholic Church, both in terms of the number of baptized faithful and the number of men and women who decide to become priests or nuns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines and India outpace Indonesia. But compared to all of Asia, the number of seminarians in Indonesia is growing while it levels off or declines across the continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Catholic Church is faced with priest-less parishes in many parts of the world, Ritapiret Seminary is overwhelmed with applicants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men training to be diocesan priests typically spend six to eight years in the seminary, and two years of pastoral work, before ordination. Less than 20 seminarians can be ordained each year, Tanga said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo answer God\u2019s calling and to choose a life as (a) priest remain something fascinating for people in this region,\u201d Tanga said. \u201cAnd yet we still appeal (to) youths to have courage to make a decision to take up church vocation, and the support from their families and society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows monastic life isn\u2019t for everyone. Some consider taking up a vocation to be too dull when compared to more modern ways of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanga said seminaries are now being challenged to brand and promote themselves to encourage young people to become priests. The school with 62 lecturers \u2014 more than half of whom are priests \u2014 is now a college where the public can study digital technology, economics, and how to become Catholic religion teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Pope John Paul II\u2019s visit to Indonesia in 1989, he hailed the faithfulness of people in Flores and the flourishing number of priests and nuns. He praised the seminarians in Ritapiret, saying: \u201cYou must also understand that faithful service to Christ and his Church will not always earn you the world\u2019s praise. On the contrary, you will sometimes receive the same treatment as the Lord: rejection, contempt, and even persecution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now a saint, the room he spent the night in at the seminary has become a spiritual tourism destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inosentius Mansur, who is on the seminary staff, said their data shows that the Catholic priest shortage is not caused by a loss of resources, but by a \u201closs of moral commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sex abuse scandals<\/strong> and other unflattering news reports emerging from the Vatican and elsewhere contributed to Yansen\u2019s decision to leave the path to priesthood, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the internal challenges, violent attacks are also a concern of the church in Indonesia. Although the country promotes itself as a bastion of tolerance in the Muslim world, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, a militant couple blew themselves up outside a packed Catholic cathedral<\/strong> on Indonesia\u2019s Sulawesi island during a Palm Sunday Mass, wounding at least 20 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bishop Siprianus Hormat of Ruteng said he still believes that most Indonesians are tolerant unless something triggers a conflict, and that the country has a pluralist society that respects freedom of religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn general, acts or behaviors of intolerance are still there, but on a small scale,\u201d Hormat said. \u201cThis is actually not a problem that is purely related to religious issue, but it was used to fuel people\u2019s anger to oppress their political rivals or those who don\u2019t agree with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though religious freedom is protected by Indonesia\u2019s constitution, members of religious minorities and atheists have been increasingly subjected to discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiversity of Indonesia is a reality that we cannot deny,\u201d Hormat said. \u201cWe cannot tolerate any actions that aim to eliminate certain religion or race from this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its annual report in January<\/strong> that blasphemy allegations and convictions remain persistent religious freedom violations throughout Indonesia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report said a new criminal code that will be implemented in 2026 will further criminalize blasphemy and expand on other violations. There also are concerns about local government initiatives to codify discrimination against minority communities gaining traction. In some schools, there are religious clothing mandates, including wearing a hijab, even for non-Muslim girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe in what Jesus said, that even though this world ends, my kingdom there will be no end,\u201d said Tanga, the seminary\u2019s rector, adding that the Catholic Church, though it has been through crises before, \u201cwill never become extinct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means the vocations to become a priest and dedication to the service of Christ and his church will never wane,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle.  He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":43724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1441,12],"tags":[4791,1648,11264,4294,9306,5274,11394,2971,7227,6609,7527,6537,11232,7823,10767,13305,7747,8440,7396,11538,9520,6738,4028,6569,3577,1445,2264,11498,6543,5696,5440,8124,10954,7970,11743,11137,12309,10748,5865,6300,7296,1062,9374,6200,10379,8297,7963,6736,8810,7584,10934,6741,6675,5471,8206,9262,8107,5320,10415,36,594,5140],"class_list":["post-43723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-world-news","tag-abuse","tag-africa","tag-allegations","tag-and-india","tag-appeal","tag-asia","tag-attacks","tag-bishop","tag-cathedral","tag-catholic","tag-catholic-priest","tag-church","tag-clergy","tag-code","tag-conflict","tag-contempt","tag-crises","tag-crisis","tag-data","tag-digital","tag-discrimination","tag-families","tag-freedom","tag-fuel","tag-future","tag-god","tag-government","tag-green-card","tag-growth","tag-hijab","tag-india","tag-indonesia","tag-international","tag-jesus","tag-majority","tag-make-up","tag-men","tag-militant","tag-muslim","tag-philippines","tag-pope","tag-pope-francis","tag-population","tag-race","tag-religion","tag-resign","tag-saint","tag-school","tag-schools","tag-sex","tag-sex-abuse","tag-teachers","tag-technology","tag-tourism","tag-treatment","tag-united-states","tag-vatican","tag-women","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who","tag-young"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43725,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43723\/revisions\/43725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}