Caritas Indonesia working with Muslims for people affected by disasters
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Fr Adrianus Suyadi SJ, executive director of Caritas Indonesia, told AsiaNews that working for the common good with people of different religion "is possible”.
Speaking in Rome where he is attending the 20th General Assembly of the organisation, he said that “Most of the people we work with are not Christian. For this reason, we have created a forum (Humanitarian Forum Indonesia), which brings together people actively involved in society but from various confessions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. All cooperate in humanitarian action.”
For the Jesuit priest, interfaith dialogue is useful for all parties. "In areas with a Muslim majority Islamic organisations take the lead, and we try to help them,” Fr Adrianus said. "The same is true for predominantly Christian areas.”
For example, “Some time ago, a volcano erupted and people were afraid to get help from Muslims for fear that they wanted to convert them. We convinced the Christians to get help from the Muslims, and Muslims do the same for us."
In general, what Caritas does “is centred on natural (earthquakes, floods) and human-made disasters (deforestation). We try to help the affected communities face hard times in order to understand how to respond."
"It is a great challenge,” Fr Adrianus explained, “because we do not know when situations will be resolved. Often disasters follow one another over a short span of time and hope seems to fade. In any case, we try to help victims and survivors".
"The government values us for our work during natural disasters, and supports us. In such circumstances, we often collaborate with government experts. We are invited almost every day to meet with them and discuss future projects."
Other issues make the situation more complicated, like miners exploited by large companies. “Whilst we speak of humanitarianism, these people only understand profits,” said Fr Adrianus.
In this case, “We worked together with the government to reach a compromise with those concerned. We also organised a forum with them to improve miners’ rights, but it is difficult to convince them and it is a very slow process, sometimes because of our own limits."
"Caritas does not provide spiritual assistance or try to convert people,” the Jesuit said. “We would lose credibility as a humanitarian organisation if we engaged in direct evangelisation.”
However, “We share the values of the Church, some of which are common to other religions. If someone wants to convert we direct them to the parishes."
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