am glad to write to you again as you meet for planning in your mission endeavors; yes, whatever you do in prayer or activities you are doing mission work.
We had a great Holy week and Tri Hari Suci ( three holy days ) with thousands of faithful participating in the services and going to confession. In the end we
Xaverian fathers were quite tired but happy. The liturgies were extremely well prepared by the Liturgical group ( all lay people), the cantors and choirs just superb, a real joy for the soul, eyes and ears. I concelebrated the second mass on the Easter Vigil: it took almost three hours since there were the baptisms of 26 adults. But again everybody enjoyed the presence of the Risen Jesus.
Our Archdiocese is celebrating its 200th anniversary (Jakarta, the very first diocese in Indonesia). The participation of the faithful at all levels is just wonderful with a well disciplined organization, enthusiasm and deep devotion. On the 26th
of May we'll have the closing celebration with the presence of the president and
vice-president and many political personalities. It'll be a good show of faith but also of union and true patriotism.
The new parish will expand pretty fast and in about 10-15 years from 4,000 faithful it could reach 10,000 faithful
Here in the parish we are very busy building a three floor church complex (the new parish which will be born from this one) which needs a lot of money, since we are building for a 1,200 seat church, so you can imagine how big it is. We have to do it, since the new parish will expand pretty fast and in about 10-15 years from 4,000 faithful it could reach 10,000 faithful. Urbanization is growing fast and the suburbs are those which are expanding the fastest. The Catholic Church in Jakarta is adding 7,000 adult baptisms every year so we have to plan accordingly.
We have been blessed in getting a building permit in less than six months. Some parishes will take 10 years and even this one where I am working now took 13 years to get the building permit. So all in all we have to really praise the good Lord. You might ask: where do you get that much money? Through many large and small projects: our parishioners can be on your par in getting money. I give a hand in preaching at all masses in city parishes here in Jakarta, then we have
raffles and so on...
Slowly but surely we'll get the church complex finished. We are planning to hand it over to the diocese in December, then they'll have to be on their own and they can do it. So you see how exciting parish life can be here in Indonesia? At 72 I have been given the task of moderating the youth groups in this large parish (13,500 souls): I have accepted the challenge and so far so good.
(From Xaverian News)