JAKARTA (UCAN): Catholic dioceses in Indonesia have moved the Ash Wednesday observance, which falls on February 14 this year, to other days of the week to help Catholics actively participate in the national elections, scheduled on the same date.
The Archdiocese of Jakarta in the national capital will observe Ash Wednesday on February 15, Church officials said.
Bishop Siprianus Hormat of Ruteng, on Flores Island, also will hold Ash Wednesday ceremonies on February 15 to help Catholics begin the season of Lent in “a true spirit of penance, with fasting and prayer,” Fides reported.
Mission stations in remote areas can carry out Ash Wednesday rituals on the first Sunday of Lent on February 19, the Bishop Hormat said in a pastoral letter.
Other dioceses are expected to make similar decisions to defer Ash Wednesday rituals due to the election, Church sources said.
Of Indonesia’s 279 million people, some 205 million are expected to vote on Febraury to elect a new president, a vice-president, and some 711 members of the national assembly, according to the nation’s election commission.
About 87.2 per cent of Indonesians are Muslims, according to the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report 2022.
About seven per cent are Protestant, 2.9 per cent Roman Catholic, and 1.7 percent Hindu. Other religions include Buddhism, Confucianism, Gafatar, Judaism, traditional Indigenous religions, and other Christian denominations.
