12-05-2025
Indigenous Papuans look to the new pope with hopes
For decades, the plight of Papuan people has been ignored by the Church hierarchy and international community May 12, 2025
A woman greets Pope Francis during the pontiff's visit to Vanimo in Papua New Guinea on Sept. 8, 2024. (Photo: Vatican Media)
By Ryan Dagur
Pope Francis did not visit the Christian-majority region of Papua during his Asia tour last September; however, his concerns and gestures regarding the plight of Papuans have provided them with a renewed perspective on the Church.
The first Jesuit and the first Latin American pope, during his 12-year papacy, achieved something that no other pope has done for the Papuans, the Christian-majority indigenous people of the western half of New Guinea Island, which is part of Indonesia.
Pope Francis became popular among Papuans as they began to see him as a champion for the cause of poor, marginalized, and oppressed people like them worldwide. They expect the next pope to follow in his footsteps.
Papuans expect the next pope to build on Pope Francis' two actions, which have left an indelible mark on their conflict-torn region, regarded as the most underdeveloped part of Indonesia.
In a historic first, Francis appointed two native Papuan priests as bishops — Yanuarius Teofilus Matopai You of Jayapura in 2022 and Bernardus Bofitwos Baru of Timika — just two months before his death.
The appointments followed years of demand for native bishops in the region, where the Catholic faith arrived more than a century ago.
The demand has grown louder in recent years, as many Papuan Catholics feel that their bishops from other parts of Indonesia, and even the Vatican, do not care enough about their aspirations, plight, and challenges.
Most Indonesian bishops assigned to Papua have remained silent about human rights violations and social injustices in light of the Indonesian government's apparent disregard for Papuans' rights.
The violations are linked to the government's efforts to suppress the Free Papua Movement, which has persisted in the region since the 1960s and advocates for self-determination.
Baru, a leading rights activist advocating for an end to violence between security forces and armed rebels in Papua, is scheduled to be ordained as bishop on May 15.
The Papuans felt abandoned as the local Church hierarchy, based in the Indonesian capital, consistently aligned with the government.
"The official stance of the Catholic Church on the Papua issue is very clear, namely to support the government's stance, because it is guaranteed by international law," the hierarchy's de facto head, Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta, said once.
A recent example is Archbishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi of Merauke supporting the controversial state-backed food projects in southern Papua, despite the Papuans' rejection of the initiative. The projects reportedly aim to seize land from Indigenous people, including members of the archdiocese.
Francis' visit to Asia last September marked a second defining moment for Papuans and offers lessons for the Indonesian hierarchy and the heads of the Vatican bureaus.
Many Papuans believe that Francis expressed his love for the indigenous people by visiting Vanimo in Papua New Guinea, just across the border from Indonesian Papua. This visit enabled many Papuans to cross the border to see the pope.
Francis' visit to Indonesia did not include a stopover in Papua or even mention Papua, apparently due to the insistence of Indonesian bishops, who did not want to upset the government.
Papuans who could not afford the flight to Jakarta to see the pope found Vanimo to be the closest place where they could meet him. He chose Vanimo to feel the pulse of the Papuans.
He also did not upset the Muslim-majority Indonesia, where he was widely popular for fostering Christian-Muslim harmony, a hallmark of his pontificate.
Francis proved that church leaders can find ways to understand and communicate with their marginalized communities, even if exploitative systems attempt to block them.
The tragedy is that Indonesian bishops remain confined within their narrow nationalistic views, which prevent them from recognizing Papuans as equal individuals and Christians deserving of dignity and rights.
The Papuan Church, which has long been dominated by Indonesian clergy, has done little to protest the state's exploitation of this resource-rich region's forests and minerals, disregarding the fundamental rights of Papuans to live on their land.
Just as Francis stood for the rights and dignity of the poor and oppressed, the new leader of the Church has a responsibility to confront the timidity of the Indonesian hierarchy, who believe that supporting the oppressed would make them targets of the state.
The Vatican must also support the two native Papuan bishops in representing their Papuan Catholics without permitting them to be overshadowed by the other 36 non-Papuan bishops in the
