World

Catholics face a shortage of priests. But one Indonesian seminary is overwhelmed with applicants

Published

2 years ago

August 31, 2024

Catholics face a shortage of priests. But one Indonesian seminary is overwhelmed with applicants

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle.

He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major has produced 13 bishops, more than 580 diocesan priests and 23 deacons in nearly 70 years of existence.

But Yansen won’t be among them. He tried to shake off what he thought were last-minute jitters before entering the priesthood. Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia.

“I felt like I didn’t fit in anymore and that I would be able to do more if I left,” said Yansen, 26, who is now an administrator at a Catholic school, Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology.

Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Indonesia is putting a spotlight on the 8.6 million Catholics who make up 3% of the population. It’s a country where religious minorities remain on edge due to militant attacks that have targeted faith groups.

More men are entering seminary, but Yansen and others like him show that Indonesia is not immune from trends contributing to the Catholic Church’s global priest shortage, including fallout from the clergy sex abuse crisis and the pull of the fast-paced modern world.

“The number of priests is never enough,” said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of St. Peter Major Seminary, which is considered the largest Catholic seminary in the world by enrollment.

Catholic priests leave after the ordination ceremony of the Paulus Budi Kleden as the new bishop of Ende, at the Christ the King Cathedral church in Ende, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Bishops take part in the ordination ceremony of Paulus Budi Kleden as the new bishop of Ende, at the Christ the King Cathedral church in Ende, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Catholic priests attend the ordination ceremony of Paulus Budi Kleden as the new bishop of Ende, at the Christ the King Cathedral church in Ende, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

In Indonesia, there 2,466 diocesan priests in Indonesia in 2022, up from 2,203 in 2017, according to Vatican statistics as of Dec. 31, 2022, the last year for which data is available. That number is supplemented by even more religious order priests, such as Jesuits or Franciscans, whose numbers reached 3,437 in 2022.

But Tanga noted that Indonesia’s population growth is outpacing priesthood vocations. “We will continue to face a shortage of priests in the future if nothing is done now.”

Asia, along with Africa, has long been seen as the future of the Catholic Church, both in terms of the number of baptized faithful and the number of men and women who decide to become priests or nuns.

The Philippines and India outpace Indonesia. But compared to all of Asia, the number of seminarians in Indonesia is growing while it levels off or declines across the continent.

While the Catholic Church is faced with priest-less parishes in many parts of the world, Ritapiret Seminary is overwhelmed with applicants.

Seminarians of Ritapiret Major Seminary climb onto a the truck that will take them to their classes at Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology in Maumere, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Seminarians climb onto a the truck that will take them to their classes at Ritapiret Major Seminary in Maumere, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Men training to be diocesan priests typically spend six to eight years in the seminary, and two years of pastoral work, before ordination. Less than 20 seminarians can be ordained each year, Tanga said.

“To answer God’s calling and to choose a life as (a) priest remain something fascinating for people in this region,” Tanga said. “And yet we still appeal (to) youths to have courage to make a decision to take up church vocation, and the support from their families and society.”

He knows monastic life isn’t for everyone. Some consider taking up a vocation to be too dull when compared to more modern ways of life.

Tanga said seminaries are now being challenged to brand and promote themselves to encourage young people to become priests. The school with 62 lecturers — more than half of whom are priests — is now a college where the public can study digital technology, economics, and how to become Catholic religion teachers.

During Pope John Paul II’s visit to Indonesia in 1989, he hailed the faithfulness of people in Flores and the flourishing number of priests and nuns. He praised the seminarians in Ritapiret, saying: “You must also understand that faithful service to Christ and his Church will not always earn you the world’s praise. On the contrary, you will sometimes receive the same treatment as the Lord: rejection, contempt, and even persecution.”

Now a saint, the room he spent the night in at the seminary has become a spiritual tourism destination.

Portraits of Pope John Paul II are displayed in a room where he stayed during his visit in 1989, at Ritapiret Major Seminary in Maumere, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Inosentius Mansur, who is on the seminary staff, said their data shows that the Catholic priest shortage is not caused by a loss of resources, but by a “loss of moral commitment.”

Sex abuse scandals and other unflattering news reports emerging from the Vatican and elsewhere contributed to Yansen’s decision to leave the path to priesthood, he said.

Beyond the internal challenges, violent attacks are also a concern of the church in Indonesia. Although the country promotes itself as a bastion of tolerance in the Muslim world, a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

In 2021, a militant couple blew themselves up outside a packed Catholic cathedral on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island during a Palm Sunday Mass, wounding at least 20 people.

Bishop Siprianus Hormat of Ruteng said he still believes that most Indonesians are tolerant unless something triggers a conflict, and that the country has a pluralist society that respects freedom of religion.

“In general, acts or behaviors of intolerance are still there, but on a small scale,” Hormat said. “This is actually not a problem that is purely related to religious issue, but it was used to fuel people’s anger to oppress their political rivals or those who don’t agree with them.”

Though religious freedom is protected by Indonesia’s constitution, members of religious minorities and atheists have been increasingly subjected to discrimination.

“Diversity of Indonesia is a reality that we cannot deny,” Hormat said. “We cannot tolerate any actions that aim to eliminate certain religion or race from this country.”

Parishioners leave after a Sunday mass at St. Joseph Cathedral Church in Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its annual report in January that blasphemy allegations and convictions remain persistent religious freedom violations throughout Indonesia.

The report said a new criminal code that will be implemented in 2026 will further criminalize blasphemy and expand on other violations. There also are concerns about local government initiatives to codify discrimination against minority communities gaining traction. In some schools, there are religious clothing mandates, including wearing a hijab, even for non-Muslim girls.

“We believe in what Jesus said, that even though this world ends, my kingdom there will be no end,” said Tanga, the seminary’s rector, adding that the Catholic Church, though it has been through crises before, “will never become extinct.”

“It means the vocations to become a priest and dedication to the service of Christ and his church will never wane,” he said.

Seminarians attend morning Mass at Ritapiret Major Seminary in Maumere, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Click to comment

World

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Published

41 minutes ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

A look at some of the contenders to be Iran’s supreme leader after the killing of Khamenei

Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment.

It’s only the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.

The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country’s disputed nuclear program.

In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.

The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.

Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.

Here are the top contenders.

Mojtaba Khamenei

The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the Islamic Republic has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi

Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.

Hassan Rouhani

Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians’ political participation.

Hassan Khomeini

Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.

Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri

Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts.

He was close to the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce “special weapons,” a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a “conspiracy.”

He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.

World

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

US cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The U.S. has been cleared to use British bases for limited strikes on Iran’s missile capabilities after Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on the plan, and while U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey stated on Sunday Britain had “stepped up alongside the Americans.”

“The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source, in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles,” Starmer confirmed in a recorded statement to the nation.

“The U.S. has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose,” he said. “We have taken the decision to accept this request.”

The decision came amid escalation across the Middle East in the wake of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory missile and drone attacks, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed off on a plan to use British bases for limited strikes on Iranian missile capabilities. (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

On Feb. 28, in the wake of Operation Epic Fury, Starmer confirmed British planes “are in the sky today” across the Middle East “as part of coordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies.”

Healey went on to disclose Sunday that two Iranian missiles were fired in the direction of Cyprus, where Britain maintains key sovereign base areas.

The Royal Air Force confirmed that Typhoon jets operating from Qatar as part of the joint U.K.-Qatar Typhoon Squadron successfully intercepted an Iranian drone heading toward Qatar.

About 300 British personnel are stationed at a naval facility in Bahrain, where Iranian missiles and drones struck nearby areas.

“We’re taking down the drones that are menacing either our bases, our people or our allies,” Healey told “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” on Sky. “We’ve stepped up alongside the Americans. We’ve stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East. We’re flying those sorties.”

ISRAEL’S LARGEST EVER MILITARY FLYOVER HAMMERS IRANIAN MILITARY TARGETS

British Defense Secretary John Healey stressed that the U.K. had “no part” in the American-Israeli strikes on Iran. (Peter Nicholls/Pool via Reuters)

Healey also made sure to stress that the U.K. had “no part” in the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and insisted all British actions were defensive. “All our actions are about defending U.K. interests and defending U.K. allies,” he said.

When asked if the U.K. would join the U.S. in offensive action, Healey said, “I’m not going to speculate,” according to Sky News.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Downing Street also confirmed Feb. 28 that Starmer and President Donald Trump had spoken by phone about the “situation in the Middle East,” the BBC reported.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Downing Street for comment.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

World

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Published

3 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Pakistan calls troops, orders 3-day curfew as 24 killed in pro-Iran rallies

Army deployed and some areas in northern Gilgit-Baltistan region put under curfew after deadly violence over Khamenei’s killing.

By AFP, Anadolu and The Associated Press

Published On 2 Mar 2026

Pakistan has called in the military and imposed a three-day curfew in some areas following deadly protests over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint United States-Israeli attack on Saturday.

At least 24 people were killed and dozens injured in clashes between protesters and security forces across the country on Sunday, prompting authorities to tighten security around the US embassy and consulates.