“But they seem to bring in the young people,” he said. “The Pentecostal church has been growing in Indonesia and all over South-east Asia in the past 10 years. They are making the Gospel very attractive to the young people. But the Catholic Church focuses on deepening people’s faith.”

Msgr Sahadat said the Catholics had no difficulty working with Muslims in East Java, but that wasn’t the case throughout Indonesia.

“We need to clarify that interfaith dialogue also happens in Indonesia,” he said. “We promote ecumenism in the Church but it is still limited.”

In Papua New Guinea, a country with a population 90 per cent Christian, the problems are quite different.

Catholic Archbishop Sir Brian Barnes, the delegate representing the Catholic Church, said the biggest issue for the church in his country was getting to know the other faiths.

“There is a certain amount of working together with other Christian groups but not with the other minority faiths,” he said.

The Church in Papua New Guinea was taking a leading role in commenting on politics.

“The media are supportive of these comments on how we should run our country,” he said.

The members of Parliament were nearly all Christian but corruption was rife and the Church was speaking out freely on this.

“The church questions the corruption in the politicians and public servants,” he said.

“Crime is another problem. It is important for the Church to say something. It’s important for the church leaders to speak out for the people. Politicians react strongly and say, ‘Keep to your pulpit’, but you can’t divorce politics from life.”

Referring to the rally organised by Destiny Church to protest alleged eroding of the Christian position in New Zealand society, Archbishop Barnes said it would be a pity if the Christian tradition in New Zealand was lost.

Secular influences were also creeping into Papua New Guinea but there were not many people promoting these.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission

Original publication date June 7, 2007