Jakarta set for Pope Francis as he begins Southeast Asian tour

The Pope’s first trip to the Muslim-majority nation is being billed as an opportunity to breathe fresh life into a national conversation over religious tolerance.

People drive past giant billboards displaying a welcome message for Pope Francis in Jakarta on Monday. Picture: AFP

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Indonesia may not be the most-obvious destination for a papal visit, but Pope Francis’s first trip to the Muslim-majority nation this week is being billed as an opportunity to breathe fresh life into a national conversation over religious tolerance.

The 87-year-old pontiff, who arrives in Jakarta on Tuesday, will visit the city’s main Istiqlal mosque before walking through a 28m underground walkway, known as the Tunnel of Friendship, connecting Southeast Asia’s largest Muslim place of worship with Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Cathedral.

The tunnel was built in 2020 as a symbol of religious harmony in the wake of a series of hardline Muslim protests in the Indonesian capital that raised fresh fears among its minority religious communities. It has not yet been opened to the public.

Eight million Indonesians identify as Catholic though just 86,000 will have the opportunity to attend Pope Francis’s interfaith mass at Gelora Bung Karno stadium on Thursday as part of a 12-day Southeast Asia and Oceania tour that will also include visits to East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.

Dolls and books of Pope Francis are displayed for sale at a bookshop at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Yogyakarta on Monday. Picture: AFP

Pope Francis is scheduled to meet outgoing President Joko Widodo on Wednesday before visiting the mosque and the cathedral later that day.

Respected Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla said he believed his visit would inject new vigour into interfaith dialogue within Indonesia, which is 87 per cent Muslim but as a state recognises six official religions including Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

The Pope will meet representatives of each official religion while in Indonesia.

“This visit by Pope Francis is tangible proof that tolerance and religious moderation are becoming more deeply rooted in Indonesia,” Mr Ulil said.

“It is the result of a long process that has now brought us to a point where the world sees Indonesia as a model in managing diversity.”

While Indonesia has long-touted its tradition of religious tolerance, Christians have been the target of numerous attacks, including church bombings, by extremist groups.

In March 2021, a Cathedral church in Makassar in South Sulawesi was attacked by suicide bombers who identified with Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, an ISIS-affiliated group.

However, Catholic theologian and priest Krispurwana Cahyadi defended Indonesia’s record in fostering “fraternity across faiths”.

“We all have a past that is not always pleasant, especially in terms of interfaith relations, which has its challenges and conflicts,” Father Cahyadi said.

“If we focus only on past grievances, we will not move forward. The Pope’s visit, particularly the interaction between Catholics and Muslims, can address critical themes in Indonesia, such as human rights, ecology, and support for the poor. These should be concerns for all religions,” he said.

About 10,000 soldiers and police will be deployed for the Pope’s three-day visit before he flies to Port Moresby on Friday and then Dili in East Timor, a majority-Catholic, former Portuguese colony where the Pope’s eagerly-awaited visit has drawn controversy for a series of recent demolitions.

A community of squatters in Tasitolou, the designated venue for the Papal mass about 15-minutes drive from the capital Dili, are being moved on to make room for an event some estimates suggest could draw as many as 700,000 people – close to 60 per cent of the tiny country’s population.

“They must leave this area,” the ABC cited East Timor’s urban planning secretary Germano Dias as saying on the first day of the demolitions.

“It is part of a protected area. They have to go back to their home villages.”