Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Jakarta has issued a Lenten pastoral letter calling on Indonesian Catholics to uphold human dignity through good deeds during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This year, we enter the Lenten season when we Catholics of Jakarta Archdiocese want to particularly understand about human dignity and to find creative ways to uphold and respect it. So … we need to understand about our human identity in accordance with our faith,” he said.
Titled “Highly Uphold Human Dignity,” the four-page letter will be read out in a video message during Masses in all 68 parishes of the archdiocese on Feb. 27 — three days ahead of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.
The letter’s subject is in line with the Year of Human Dignity declared in January by the prelate, who wanted Catholics to show the caring face of God throughout this year.
The Year of Human Dignity itself kicked off the archdiocese’s new five-year basic pastoral direction program with the slogan “Loving, Caring, Being A Witness.”
“The question is how can we, ‘men created in the fragile image of God,’ use our common sense, conscience and free choice to praise and serve God? We all know the answer: by imitating Jesus who is ‘the image of the invisible God, for in him all things were created.’ By imitating Jesus and doing what he did, we will reflect more his glory,” Cardinal Suharyo said.
His call makes us realize that upholding human dignity by persevering with good deeds is really needed in times of crisis. We cannot just sit in silence
He encouraged Catholics to be persistent in doing good deeds.
“To make good deeds more creative, each of us and families or communities need to answer this question and then to put it into practice: ‘What kind of good deeds must we do concretely in our surroundings, good deeds which reflect our dignity as Christ’s disciples and honor others’ dignity?’” he said.
Cardinal Suharyo concluded his letter by mentioning a teacher he met several years ago who persevered in doing his job in an area where nobody understood about the Catholic Church in order to demonstrate good deeds.
According to Vincentius Hargo Mandirahardjo, chairman of the Jakarta-based Association of Indonesian Catholic Intellectuals, the prelate’s call is relevant to the current situation in Indonesia in general.
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“We see that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of life in our country: the economic situation, education, health care and so on. Not to mention emerging issues such as intolerance and hoaxes which continue to come up and political elites which tend to make use of this situation to corner the government,” he told UCA News.
He said Cardinal Suharyo’s call came at the right time.
“His call makes us realize that upholding human dignity by persevering with good deeds is really needed in times of crisis. We cannot just sit in silence. We must work hand in hand in facing this situation,” he said.
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