There are two strategic and fundamental issues that the Catholic Church in Indonesia and its Catholic institutions (including religious organisations and ‘secular’ social institutions in education, pastoral care, health care and social welfare) are urgently grappling with.
July 23, 2024
Catholics attend church on Good Friday in Bandung, West Java, on April 2, 2021. Security has been tightened following a suicide bomb attack at Makassar’s cathedral on March 28. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP)
Matthias Hariyadi
There are two strategic and fundamental issues that the Catholic Church in Indonesia and its Catholic institutions (including religious organisations and ‘secular’ social institutions in education, pastoral care, health care and social welfare) are urgently grappling with.
There are two urgent matters:
1. Legal recognition by the State and its administration of Church bodies, organizations and institutions.
2. The Church is advised to take seriously the Ministerial Decree issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (BPN) in May 2024 urging Churches and their associated organizations to legalize their property, especially land.
Major issues
A one-day conference was held in early July in central Jakarta by the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Directorate General of Catholic Guidance (known locally as Direktorat Jenderal Bimas Katolik Kemenag RI), which was attended by ministry officials in Jakarta as well as 400 participants from across the country via an online platform.
A strategic challenge that emerged at the meeting was whether church leaders, heads of religious communities, and other Catholic institutions would be able to devote maximum efforts to completing the necessary legalization within the mandated one-year time frame. This has to do with how the state, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency (BPN), will officially recognize all property assets owned by churches, religious communities, and other Catholic institutions.
The problem I’m currently experiencing is:
1. There is only one year to administer and resolve various issues related to land ownership.
2. How can churches, religious communities and Catholic institutions address this urgent challenge when land ownership is legally recorded in the name of “others” and not in the name of ecclesial, religious or Catholic institutions?
Solutions to help you solve your problems
Addressing the audience at the conference, Director General of Catholic Guidance Suparman offered moral support to the Church, religious orders and Catholic institutions to address all issues within the one-year deadline set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Planning/National Land Agency. “If necessary, we will work together to find solutions,” he stressed.
It is widely known among some Catholics in Indonesia that the Church frequently makes the grave error of purchasing land assets and then legalizing them under the name of “private buyers.”
“A serious stumbling block in these matters is the fact that the purchaser may be the priest’s ‘close friend’, a family member or someone else. If all these people are deceased, serious legal proceedings arise. In this case, legal proceedings must first be undertaken to ‘release’ the property from the owner’s name before it can be changed into the new owner’s name,” explains Sparman.
“Our institutions (Regional Bimas Catholic Churches in each regency) have been advised to reach out to assist in this process,” he added. Suparman’s remarks were in reference to Ministerial Regulation No. 21/Pnj/KEM-ATR/BPN/VI/2024 issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Agricultural and Spatial Planning/Head of the National Land Agency, which appoints church institutions as entities with legal status that have the power to own land, which is a property asset.
“Today’s meeting is aimed at ensuring that all stakeholders understand the message of the decree and its far-reaching implications,” added Catholic Secretary General Dr. Aroma Salmaha.
Required Attachments
For church organisations to obtain land certificates, they need a recommendation from the Bimas Catholic Church Council to legalise their real estate assets, explains the Chief Officer for Legal Affairs. Under the ministerial decree, the following church organisations are allowed to have property rights to own land: the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI), dioceses, parishes, diocesan areas, seminaries, high schools of philosophy and theology, religious orders/congregations, religious organisations and Catholic institutions with specific apostolic ministries (schools, hospitals, etc.).
Father Ali Dianto, head of property management for the Jakarta Archdiocese, reiterated to the audience that Catholic organizations need orders from the local land office to extend requests or transfer property ownership from specific individuals to church institutions.
“We are expected to have our local Bimas Catholic office assist us in the process to obtain the ‘order’ from the regional BPN office,” Suparman asserted.–licas.news
