JAKARTA (CWNews.com/Fides) - The curriculum in Catholic
schools in Indonesia will not include Islamic instruction,
the Indonesian Catholic Bishops Conference said this week,
rejecting government pressure in the most populous Muslim
nation in the world.
In October 1999, the Ministers of Education and Religious
Affairs sent a joint letter to Catholic schools requesting
that instruction in the Muslim faith be added to the school
program. The proposal was motivated by the fact that 40
percent of the pupils at Catholic schools are Muslim.
Jesuit Father Sumaryo, head of the Bishops Conference's
Education Commission, said: "Islamic instruction is
practically unfeasible in Catholic schools. The controversy
of possibly teaching Islamic instruction for the Muslims
students, who frequented Catholic schools, has been the
concern of Catholic headmasters, particularly in
Yogyakarta, one of the cradles of the Catholic community in
Indonesia, but all attempts failed."
Sister Antoni Hari Surwidiyanti, PIJ, the principal of the
Sang Timur high school in Yogyakarta, said government
officials have strongly urged her, along with dozens of
colleagues from other Catholic schools, to teach Islam. "I
refused because this pressure stems from a unilateral
decision," she said. Sister Margaretha Surani CB, added
that government officials have threatened to remove some
government-subsidized teachers from the Christian schools,
and put bureaucratic pressure on diverse services for these
schools.
Father Pujasumarta, vicar general of Semarang diocese, said
that in keeping with the teaching of Vatican II, the local
Church seeks to enhance relations with and understanding of
other religions. "However," he said, "if Islamic instruction
is eventually taught in Catholic schools, the private
schools must be guaranteed the right to appoint who teaches
this religious instruction."
"What we object to is that such pressure against the
Catholic schools has been politically motivated as
sectarian tendency emerged among the people in the
country," he added. "The Bishop's call to enhance religious
harmony has also been twisted into demanding Islamic
instruction in Catholic schools," he said referring to the
content of unsigned leaflets widespread among the people in
Central Java.