This picture taken on January 12, 2021, shows health workers loading coffins containing COVID-19 coronavirus victims into an ambulance at police hospital in Jakarta. (AFP Photo)
By LiCAS.news
Nov 17 2021
More than 120 consecrated persons in Indonesia, including priest and nuns, succumbed to COVID-19 complications from January to September this year alone.
A report on the Italian news agency Fides said the religious persons were infected “in the exercise of their mission of pastoral care, spiritual assistance, and accompaniment” of the sick and the suffering.
“The Indonesian Catholic Church is paying a very high price for its frontline commitment to bringing care and hope,” the report quoted Father Joseph Kristanto Suratman of the Commission for Seminaries of Indonesia’s bishops’ conference.
“We have a serious concern for all consecrated persons in our country who give themselves completely without fear,” said the priest, adding that “the Lord sends us vocations to consecrated life, but it takes many years to form new religious and consecrated persons.”
A report on the Indonesian Catholic portal Sesawi.net, the large number of victims among the religious represents a huge loss for the Catholic Church of Indonesia.
“We hope and pray that this COVID-19 pandemic ends as soon as possible so that we can resume our normal life,” said Sister Gabriella, an Augustinian nun in West Kalimantan.
Read the full news in LiCAS.news.
