Somascan Foundation in Indonesia

Selamat Datang... Welcome to Ruteng!

by Fr. Javier San Jose,crs

These were greetings of the Sisters and aspirants of the DVMI community who welcomed us in the domestic airport of the city of Ruteng, Island of Flores. They immediately offered manggarai hats for us fittingly worn by tourists.
Selamat Datang, Fathers... Are you a new congregation? Our Bishop is looking for a new congregation to take charge of a new parish near Borong. Romo (diocesan priest) Beni gushed forth these words upon knowing that we were religious priests visiting Indonesia for the first time, and unknowingly, we are together in plane from Bali to Ruteng. He invited us to go and visit his parish in Borong.
What a divine plan! What a coincidence! Right there and then, God really worked for us, leading us the way!
Ruteng became the door for us to enter Indonesia... and Ruteng eventually welcomed us with open arms and cheerfulness!
Fr. Grato and I arrived in Ruteng on August 29, 2006 after spending the night in Bali. It was rather sunny midday, very cool and fresh. We stayed during the nights to sleep at the Monfortan Novitiate and had some interesting conversations with Pater (religious priest) Dwi, the superior of the community and with other postulants and novices. During the day we were with the DVMI sisters dividing their time and turn to room us around. The DVMI sisters were very accommodating, rather showing us an extraordinary Filipino hospitality, for they are Filipino missionary sisters in Ruteng. Immediately, they arranged our itinerary, encouraging us to experience the life in Ruteng or in the kampong (countryside) with many stories about the local people, their customs, religiosity, the language, the many vocations for the priesthood and religious life; their activities, apostolate, formation and the more than fifty congregations in Ruteng and still counting! We came to visit their convent in Sita, still under construction, 21 km from Ruteng, where they use to spend the weekends helping the parish for catechesis and bringing communion to the people in the barrios. We had visited some of the formation houses, and found out a very encouraging result: vocation to priesthood and religious life is plentiful. We were able to witness this when we visited the minor seminary in Kisol, 66 km from Ruteng, with 415 minor seminarian. Every convent of sisters we visited, there were more tan 15 to 20 aspirants or postulants or novices.
The population of Ruteng is 90% catholic, very religious. They go to mass every Sunday with the whole family, meaning, with the father, mother and children with their best attire. They prefer to attend mass very early, say, 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and really the church was filled with these simple parishioners.
The language is quite easy to learn at least for me because of its familiarity with some Filipino dialects. We are indeed neighbours, sharing some similarities and peculiarities with language and dialects. Filipino missionaries in Ruteng could speak Bahasa Indonesia for just a matter of some months. (Buka, pintu, mukha, dingding, makan, mahal, mura, datang, laut etc.)
We were not able to meet the Bishop of Ruteng and give him the endorsement from our Major Superior, because of his absence from the Diocese. Fortunately, we were able to meet and talk with his alter ego, the vicar general of the Diocese, Romo Alfons, who is very gentle, accommodating and always smiling. He stayed in the Philippines quite sometimes with the SVDs. He told us that Bishop is not refusing permit to any congregation to establish in Ruteng. He actually welcomes them. And how about us? He smiled widely, and said Yes, just wait for the response of the Bishop. "Very very can be", according to Romo Beni, as he quoted the bishop when he called him informing our presence and offering us a parish.

We visited Borong, a coastal town, that according to Romo Beni will become a city by next year, that is the reason why the Bishop is creating new parishes within the area. It is 51 km from Ruteng, passing through a forest where monkeys were just on the road. The parish priest is Romo Beni, whom we met at the Denpasar airport in Bali. He immediately invited us to visit his place and accept to take charge of the new parish. The seat of the new parish is in Jawang, in between Sita and Borong. The elders of the tribe had invested us already with "manggarai hats", signaling their acceptance to us, welcoming us as one of the elders. They were thinking that we were there already to start the parish! We were not allowed to go directly to the chapel but instead to go to the house of the chieftain and observe the traditional welcome ceremony. The chapel is dilapidated, small and old already. The place was very rustic, rural and poor. Most of the inhabitants are poor and impoverished farmers. Indeed, this would be a real missionary parish!
Where could we stay? From the suggestion of the vicar general, Romo Alfons, we could rent a house for the meantime, at least to have a place for some religious to stay and learn the language and many things, put up a formation house later and establish an apostolate outside Ruteng to help the needs of the diocese, meaning, a formation house, a parish, an apostolate center, etc.
We came to visit a house in Ruteng, just near the house where the DVMI sisters are renting a house, too. We were so excited and enthusiastic about it that Fr. Grato and I wanted to stay there and start already to fix the house. Exactly, the house is for rent and we could stay there as soon as we want to start our mission in Ruteng and eventually spread to some parts of Indonesia.
To sum up our unforgettable and exciting exploration in Indonesia, in Ruteng particularly, Fr. Grato exclaimed before leaving Ruteng: "We could have visited and started in this place ten years ago!" Hence, now is the time, a good opportune time to start the Somascan presence in Indonesia, and spread the charism of St. Jerome Emiliani. Now or never!

SELEMAT DATANG DI INDONESIA ORDO IMAM DAN BRUDER SOMASCAN!