ICC Note: Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, visited the country’s Catholic bishops for the first time during his presidency. In the hour long meeting they discussed the need for religious institutions as well as the preservation of diversity and unity. In a Muslim-majority country suffering growing radicalism, the religious diversity the country once was known for is now at stake.

09/09/2018 Indonesia (HeraldMalaysia) – Indonesia’s Joko Widodo, paid his first visit as president to the headquarters of the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference in Jakarta on Aug. 24 to improve ties with the local church and to stress the need for religious institutions to preserve and maintain diversity within the nation.

The conference’s chairman Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta and its secretary-general, Holy Cross Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung in West Java province, as well as eight other bishops, welcomed the president.

During their meeting that lasted more than an hour, each bishop took the chance to discuss various issues affecting their respective dioceses with the president, who took office in 2014.

“In the meeting, I talked about issues related to [the national ideology of] Pancasila as well as diversity especially in terms of religion, ethnicity, customs and traditions that we must continue to maintain,” Widodo later told reporters.

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