Pope Francis’ visit to Indonesia in September last year materialized when the freedom of religion in Indonesia was arguably riding high. Since 2000, the country suffered from the constant bouts of the acts of terrorism that, among others, targeted Christian minorities. But Indonesia’s anti-terrorism agency reported that, for the first time, Indonesia had “zero terrorist attacks” between January 2023 and June 2024.

The strings of physical violence against minority faiths in Islam such as Ahmadiyah and Shi’a, and the issuance of sharia bylaws, which were rampant in the regions during the presidency of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono between 2004 and 2014, became much rare in recent years. Indeed, there was a dispute between rights activists and the government on the state of religious freedom in Indonesia.

Setara Institute claimed the number of violations toward freedom of religion rose sharply to 217 events in 2023 from 175 in a year earlier, while in contrast, the Ministry of Religious Affairs claimed the national’s religious harmony index, which include religious freedom and tolerance parameters, increased steadily to 76,47 from 73,09 in 2022. But, despite the clash of claims, the greater number of evidence presented above show that the freedom of religion in Indonesia in recent years has been better.

What does Pope Francis’ visit mean to the freedom of religion in Indonesia, and in particular, what does it mean to the 8.46 million Catholics adherents, which make up 3 percent of the Indonesia’s 282 million population?

I argue that the Indonesian three day’s visit, which was part of his four Asia nation’s visit between 3 and 13 September 2024, clearly boosted diplomatic and interfaith relations between Indonesia and Vatican. The betterment in the diplomatic and interfaith relations will enhance the country’s religious freedom.

In diplomacy front, the visit strengthened diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Vatican that had occurred for a long time. The two have developed good diplomatic relations that began even since Indonesia independence in 1945. Vatican was among the first nation in Europe that officially acknowledged Indonesia independence. Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno, visited Vatican at least three times between 1956 and 1964, while President Soeharto, President Abdurrahman Wahid and President Megawati Soekarnoputri visited the country once in 1972, 2000 and 2002 respectively. Pope Paul VI visited Indonesia in 1970 at the invitation of President Soeharto, while another Pope (Pope John Paul II) visited Indonesia in 1989.

Numerous reciprocal visits among Vatican and Indonesia religious leaders, the people of second track diplomacy, showed that people to people relations, and diplomatic relations, are equally good between the two countries. To name a few example, prominent activist of Nadhlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, Yahya Cholil Staquf, visited Vatican at least three times between 2020 and 2024 alone for variety of purposes, including to attend a religious conference and to attend a meeting boosting interfaith relations among people of different faith in the world.

In interfaith front, during the visit (Pope Francis was the third Pope who visited the country), the aura of suspicion was relatively absent among religious leaders, especially Muslim and Catholic religious leaders. None of Muslim leaders voiced out negative views toward the visit and the agenda that the Pope brought, namely to promote peaceful coexistence among people of different faiths. Instead, Muslim leaders warmly welcomed the visit, believing that the visit strengthens people of different faiths’ commitment to building peace and tolerance among them. Also, among millions of grassroot Muslims, this visit generated positive tones in their online and offline narratives. Few irresponsible people evoked intolerant narratives and even posted physical threats against the Pope online, but the number of such negative narratives was minuscule compared to the positive ones.

Gone were the days when conservative and militant Muslims often accused Catholic organization for being responsible for the Christianization program during Soeharto era, but such accusation dissipated overtime as the program, even if it existed, had not resulted in the massive conversion of Muslims to Catholics. After Soeharto fell from power in 1998, anti-Catholic narratives lost steam as Muslims have been grappling with radicalization problems within Islam. As result, relationships between Muslims and Catholics have relatively improved.

All these positive responses by Muslim leaders and grassroots toward the visit have brought comfort, not only to the Catholics, but also to other minority faiths too. This encouraging environment boosted mutual trust among people of different faiths, and the mutual trust can lead to better religious freedom. How the religious freedom is achieved through mutual trust? Uprooting and tackling intolerance will not be successful without the presence of mutual trust among the leaders and the adherents of the different faiths. Through the mutual trust, influential religious leaders can work together to tackle the problem of religious intolerance, and this can boost religious freedom.

For Catholics adherents, especially among their grassroot people, the Pope Francis’ visit provided them with inspiration and solace. The 87-years old Pope impressed and inspired local people, including the Catholic adherents, as he showed them humility, a quality that they wished to emulate. Instead of taking a private jet, he travelled by a commercial flight, travelling 13 hours from Italy to Indonesia. He did not stay in a posh hotel while visiting Jakarta, instead he stayed in Vatican embassy. Some Catholics stated that his visit boosted their spirit to contribute more to establish peaceful coexistence among people of different faiths in Indonesia.

His presence in the country generated warm feeling among the Catholics as some of them are still grappling with the variety of economic and social problems. Poverty remains problem for Catholics in some areas in Indonesia, especially in East Nusa Tenggara province, which is predominantly Catholic. Its human development index was ranked 32 out of 34 provinces in Indonesia in 2023. Catholic-run private schools and universities, which used to be the barometer of good education in Indonesia, have been facing much stiffer competition, especially from the Muslim ones. Muslim private education used to be lagging behind Catholic and Protestants in the Dutch colonial era due to the absence of colonial support, but following Indonesian independence, the quality of Muslim private education improved as many Muslims climbed social ladder, landing them to be part of middle- and upper-class society, providing them with sufficient skill and capital to establish private Muslim schools and universities with good quality. This is a big loss to the Catholic, especial among Catholic schools as growing number of Muslims has chosen to send their kids to Muslim schools instead of sending them to Catholic schools, which became quite common practice among upper- and middle-class Muslims in the past.

While freedom of religion generally improved as it is mentioned earlier, but intolerance still occurs from time to time against the Catholic. In May 2024, a group of Muslim residents in South Tangerang, Banten province attacked some 12 Catholic university students performing Rosario prayers in the densely populated neighbourhood near their university in the area. Police quickly arrested four people responsible for the attacks, but the incident traumatized students and sent discomfort signal to larger Catholic population. Pope’s September visit offered them solace amidst the economic and the religious problems that the Catholics are facing.

Note: Another version of the articcle has been previously published in ISEAS Fulcrum and is accessible here