Paper accepted for 20 minute presentation in the 2018 International Conference on Mission Studies, themed ANSWERING THE CALL: MISSION IN TIME OF TERROR,
at Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental 6200, Philippines, 30 May – 1 June 2018:
A Cultural Way to Nurture Mutual Understanding, Education, and Faith: a 63 year experiment
Aloysius Rusli
Physics Department, FTIS, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung 40141, Indonesia
Abstract
This time of terror and intolerance, including the upsurging of populism, can be considered to
be a logical consequence of disregarding or neglecting the dignity of man. It should be borne
with trust in the Lord and a peaceful attitude, while continue concentrating on building any
bridges possible. One experiment of building bridges was started in year 1955 with the
establishment of Parahyangan Catholic University (shortened noticeably to “UNPAR”) in
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. West Java with its 47 million population, 2% being christian,
is usually identified with a devout muslim culture, and the missionary way chosen by this
University is a cultural way. The two founding fathers were the bishops of Bandung and
Bogor, and Mgr Geise of Bogor pioneered a way of not using any christian signs in the
campus, instead nurturing understanding and education of the staff, to serve the students and
their lecturers as dignified human persons. Mgr Geise led the way with his joviality, intensely
interested in the personal happiness of everyone in the University, with an strong academic
understanding due to his doctoral research of the indigenous attitudes of the Baduy people in
the southwestermost part of West Java. Mgr Arntz, a priest with a golden heart, paid personal
attention to the happiness of everyone. Not using any christian symbols in the university,
except the occasional Eucharistic Mass, surprised and was questioned by fellow catholic
unversities for an initial decade, just answered sometimes if we should trigger religious
sensitivities in our mission to promote the dignity of the human person. After the decease of
the two bishops, this open attitude started to falter, but finally during the past 5 years, that
original attitude, still present mostly in the first generation of the staff members, and
recovered in its essentials, was formulated with the catchword SINDU, acronym for
Spirituality and Basic Values of Unpar. This experiment is intended to be described with
Introduction
This time of terror and intolerance, with the upsurging of “populism”, can be considered to be a logical consequence of disregarding or neglecting the dignity of man, of every person living and dead. Simple observation will show, how sensitive a person is towards acts of his or her humilitation.
This can be interpreted as an innate sense of self-respect, of his/her dignity as a human being. This sense of dignity can be traced to the human’s capacity to think, to understand things, to reach conclusions, to feel various emotions and becoming aware of the value of those thoughts and feelings. So it is also logical to understand that disregarding or neglecting the dignity of man, by humilitation or similar acts will arouse repulsion, protest, avoidance, anger, and hatred. The Lord has brought the good news that the remedy would be to accept humilitation as a “cross” with which to be able to follow in His footsteps, moving towards spiritual resurrection and later on eternal love and happiness.
However, that would not be easy, neither sufficient. We are advised further that loving God is equivalent to loving our neighbours, including those who terrorize and show intolerance towards us. So the proper christian attitude to face terrorism and intolerance is with endless patience and empathy, together with intense thinking and searching, to find a proper way of solving problems and acting in a christian way.
So it should be done with trust in the Lord and a peaceful and constructive attitude, while continue concentrating on building any and as many bridges as possible. One experiment of building bridges was started in year 1955, 63 years ago this year, in West Java, Indonesia, being a region of devout Muslims.
Start of the experiment
When I was in high school in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, I heard my parents mention about efforts by the Indonesian Catholic Bishops Conference to establish a network of catholic universities in Indonesia, most probably starting in the island of Java which is the most populated island in Indonesia. They pointed to an empty area on north side of the town, where it was said would be the better place to build it. It turned out that within a year or two from that time, Parahyangan Catholic University (very soon acronymed as “UNPAR”) in Bandung, West Java, and Sanata Dharma Teacher’s College in Yogyakarta, Central Java, indeed were created.
The initial efforts could still be subsidized by European (mostly Dutch and German) christian communities, but within some years the Indonesian government already started to act with a nationalistic attitude, mainly prohibiting christian foreign funds and missionaries to enter Indonesia. This triggered then the establishment in year 1960 of catholic Widya Mandala University by the bishop of Surabaya, and Atma Jaya University in Jakarta, this one initiated by the catholic laity.
The establishment of UNPAR in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia was wisely initiated together with several respected and authoritative local dignitaries. West Java with its 47 million
population, 2% being christian, is usually identified with a devout muslim culture of the indigeneous Sunda people, and that initial step has been a cornerstone up to the present. Had UNPAR been established solely by non-Sunda personnel, I imagine it would experience more local resistance. Understandably, the missionary way chosen by this University is also a cultural way. The two founding fathers were the bishops of Bandung and Bogor, their bishopries covering the whole of West Java except the capital Jakarta which is the region’s arch-bishopry.
Mgr Geise of Bogor pioneered a way of not using any christian signs in the campus, instead nurturing understanding and education of the staff, to serve the students and their lecturers as dignified human persons.
Buildings were contributed by local European residents, and routine expenses were supported by the Bandung Bishopry, not without some worries from the catholic parishes and primary and secondary schools. By the end of the 1970’s, Misereor of Germany started to approve large subsidies for 3 new custom-built buildings on the newly acquired campus of
Ciumbuleuit, a former sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. Even at present, there exists a tuberculosis provincial hospital about 300 meter from Unpar’s south east side. This became the main campus until now. Since the 1980’s, Unpar was able to finance 6 further buildings using mainly savings from student fees. Indicating growing attention and support from the government, the Director of Learning of the Education Ministry, Dr Paristiyanti Nurwardani in her speech on 24 April 2018 at the occasion of our faculty’s 25th anniversary, offered several postgraduate scholarships and student bursaries to UNPAR. She also praised UNPAR’s motto, Bakuning Hyang Mrih Guna Santjaja Bhakti (see below).
A cultural approach
Mgr Geise led the way as UNPAR’s Rector with his joviality, intensely interested in the personal happiness of everyone in the University, with an strong academic understanding due to his doctoral research of the indigenous attitudes of the Baduy people in the southwestern-most part of West Java. Mgr Arntz, a priest with a golden heart, paid personal attention to the happiness of everyone. Not using any christian symbols in the university, except the
decades, just answered sometimes if we should trigger religious sensitivities in our mission to promote the dignity of the human person.
In reality, there was some grumbling about felt neglect of catholic symbols and personell preferences. So part of the catholic staff joined SPUKAT, a community of UNPAR staff to pay more attention to retreats, recollections, picnics, gatherings among catholic staff. And since the 1990s crosses and some catholic symbols were put up by some staff on their office walls. This was not prevented. Prayers were sometimes also said in a specifically catholic way, while since the beginning, prayers were said expressly in a general inclusive style.
Community and Mutual understanding
After the decease of the two bishops around 1990, this open attitude started to falter, but finally during the past 5 years, that original attitude, still present mostly in the first generation of the staff members, and recovered in its essentials, was formulated with the catchword SINDU, acronym for Spirituality and Basic Values of UNPAR (UNPAR 2015).
The vision of the two bishops was expressed as being threefold:
a. Caring of the catholic community in West Java about tertiary education in the local region and generally in Indonesia;
b. A non-partisan attitude in contributing to the common good of the nation, placing that above partisan interests; and
c. An open-minded, mutually-understanding, dialogical attitude, acknowledging existing differences in creating constructive interactions, between the various religious groups, and between the sciences and faith. The christian spirit of love and empathy should be the energizing factor in all of this.
This vision was expressed since the year 1960 in the Sanskrit language expression chosen for UNPAR: Bakuning Hyang mrih guna santjaja bhakti, meaning that based (“baku”) on the belief in (“ning”) God (Hyang), every person involved in UNPAR would (“mrih”) master knowledge (“guna”) to serve (“santjaja bhakti”) the community.
As a university using the term “catholic”, it was natural to accept directives on the catholic character issued by the Pope in the Vatican when they were promulgated, like the
Constitution on Catholic Universities (usually mentioned by the first mentioned words in the document, “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”, “from the heart of the catholic community / church”), mentioning for the first time explicitly, that every catholic university should insist on promoting dialogue between science and faith in 1990, the Encyclical (a circulated letter promoting some view of the Pope) called “Fides et Ratio” on the relation of faith and reason as “two wings to bear up the human soul”in 1998, the Encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” on love or charity actualized in concrete actions as truth in 2009.
All this seems quite naturally consistent and inherent in this local community, while not always being conscious of it or having a consistent rationality and concreteness in it. So building community and mutual understanding on this common base, would be logical and natural.
Education
Since the beginning, UNPAR was known for its set of standard lectures called Logic and Ethics. Alumni quite often acknowledged these two difficult lectures as the most
rememberable and useful for their career life. Fortunately I was a bit instrumental in the early 2000s in keeping or re-introducing those key lectures, added to it Esthetics to introduce students to that particular point of view, besides the nationally required Pancasila, Civics, Religious Studies, and UNPAR’s traditional Catholic Religion or alternatively
Phenomenology of Religion. Besides these lectures, this experiment is intended to be
actualized in daily attitudes and actions, by lecturers and supporting staff members. This has been intensified by various reflection sessions, outings, and training sessions, showing some improvement of attitudes and diligence. However previous habits die hard, and the various personal attitudes brought from home and background still show, causing some worries on how to respond in a proper way to address them.
Since the 1970s, for ~20 years Indonesia experienced a nationwide program in establishing the Pancasila principles, being legally agreed upon as the national characteristic of Indonesia. It was agreed at the start of independence in 1945 to be the 5 foundational principles of the Indonesian nation. Those 5 are Belief in the monotheistic God, Humanitarianism, Indonesian Unity, the People’s Sovereignty through Wisdom by Dialogue of Representatives, and Social Justice. However, the reluctance to disagree publicly caused that program to degenerate into just memorizing many definitions and rules, then realized as being hypocritical in talking and doing. After the upheavals starting in the year 1997, Pancasila temporarily went into neglect, but in the past few years got a comeback when Indonesia realized that those principles were very important if Indonesia wants to keep its greatness as a single pluralistic and specific country.
But how to educate all people to accept the consequences, has just started by trial and error. Personally I think that insisting on an attitude of “doing one’s best” in every small thing possible in daily life, “living an ordinary life in an extra-ordinary way” as mentioned also in the latest exhortation “Gaudate et Exsultate” of Pope Francis in March 2018, will give many opportunities resulting in concrete practicalities.
Faith
The above discussion is based on logical reasoning. Where does faith come in? Since the beginning, the two bishops-initiators led with the example of doing concrete things based on their strong faith in God and christianity. It was a well-followed example for UNPAR’s daily life.
At present, as can be read in the 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio, reason alone can lead to coldness and loneliness, which can be warmed and be given community-embracement through having faith in the blessings of God in all our efforts. Those blessings can be found by staying in communion with church life, spiritual life, etc. As also mentioned in the 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, by acting with concrete things, we can enter into “the Truth” which is caring and fostering the community. What for other spiritualities? I think that every kind of spirituality, not just the christian spirituality, has at least some of that Truth in it, which can be savoured through acting in concord with each single spirituality. And together, in plurality, using reason to sift and finding the better Truth, we can endeavour to reach the Unreachable.
So enters Hope into our life, hoping that when the call from the Father comes, we can then more fully savour that unreachable end at last.
Future Realities?
All this would sound idealistic and far from reachable. However in this time of terrorism etc we can at least slowly build up those small concrete realities in our personal environment, with a positive attitude strengthened by faith in the Infinitely Good God, refusing to become defensive in our actions, keeping trust in the Lord, insisting on pleasant response by ourselves in every single event, being prepared to be humilitated and lose opportunities and pleasantries in managing terrorism.
Hopefully we can then still make our personal and closest world of living a little heaven on Earth, even though in the eyes of some people we have lost churches, levies, and goods.
Conclusion
I have tried to describe what has been endeavoured in UNPAR, to spread the Good Word without using explicit terms and names. Hopefully this talk will give some small but worthy original ideas in the audience.
I would like to thank UNPAR for its support, so I could come to this meeting with its blessings. I am also thankful for the opportunity given by the committee of the 2018
International Conference on Mission Studies, themed“Answering the call: Mission in time of terror”,at Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental 6200, Philippines, 30 May – 1 June 2018, to present my thoughts at the event.
References
John Paul II (1990) Constitution on catholic universities “Ex Corde Ecclesiae”. 15 August.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_15081990_ex-corde-ecclesiae.html . 26 April 2018
John Paul II (1998) Encyclical on faith and reason “Fides et Ratio”. 14 September.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html . 26 April 2018
Benedict XVI (2009) Encyclical on charity in truth “Caritas in Veritate”. 29 June. http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate.html . 26 April 2018
UNPAR (2015) Spiritualitas dan Nilai-nilai Dasar Universitas Katolik Parahyangan. Lembaga Pengembangan Humaniora.
