Bandung (AsiaNews) - Biblical readings and reflections to promote a more intense awareness in Indonesian society of the importance of preserving nature. These are the ingredients of the "ecological retreat," a proposal carried out for years by Fr. Ferry Sutrisna Widjaja of Bandung, West Java province.
From 2009 to the present, this proposal has successfully "changed" the mindset of thousands of Indonesians of different social backgrounds and origins, internalizing the spirit of conversion that Scripture suggests.
P. Ferry has just finished conducting this program at the Shrine of the Holy Family in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi Province: dozens of people participated, all members of the local Sauan Sibarrung Credit Union. Unlike ordinary "spiritual exercises," during his three-day "ecological retreat," the priest presents both biblical sources and pages from Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'.
The goal is to kindle a love for the preservation of creation and to choose a healthy social lifestyle, consuming organic food and abandoning the use of pesticides in agriculture.
"After this experience I will now be strongly motivated to preserve nature. To neglect this moral call would be to commit a sin," Yohana Patombe, a housewife from Palopo, tells AsiaNews. "We consume organic rice, we no longer use pesticides," adds Agustinus Medardus of Makale.
Fr. Ferry says that people from other religious denominations often attend his retreats, but all have felt enlightened by the spirit.
Sister Theresina, director of the Panti Nugraha Hospital at Pakem in Yogyakarta, confirmed to AsiaNews that her belief in the urgency of safeguarding nature was intensely stimulated by Fr. Ferry during an outreach program at Eco Camp in Bandung several years ago. At the hospital, he created a special area where all organic waste is now recycled and used as organic fertilizer.
