The meeting was held between 19 and 22 April. The ‘K3s’ includes six dioceses on Java Island. The bishop of Bogor hopes the Holy Scriptures may “be a fruitful resource and the main source of inspiration for all the activities of the Church."
Java (AsiaNews) – For the first time, the Bible Apostolate Commission (Komisi Kerasulan Kitab Suci, K3s) in Java opened its regular three-day meeting to young Indonesians. Out of 130 participants, 50 were youth.
For Mgr Paskalis Bruno Syukur, the Franciscan bishop of Bogor, the purpose of this is to bring the Bible closer to the country’s new generation of Catholics.
The forum was held between 19 and 22 April in Bogor. The K3s includes six dioceses on the island of Java, namely the Archdiocese of Jakarta and Semarang and the dioceses of Bogor, Bandung, Purwokerto, Malang and Surabaya.
"The delegations of each diocese shared their plans for 2018 and their past activities for the dissemination of the Bible among Catholic groups in their respective regions," said Francis Xavier Rickoloes Pricorianto, head of the organising committee.
Encouraged to participate by the organisers, the scores of young Catholics were involved in a presentation by author Ym Seto Marsunu, from the Indonesian Bible Agency (LBI), and other groups from Jakarta.
They also took part in three sessions. The first was a seminar on materials that will be used and distributed during the next National Bible Month (BKSN 2018). According to Fr Indra Sandjaja, of the diocese of Semarang, this year’s theme will be dialogue in "diversity", which is strongly felt in this multi-religious country. This also included a look at another major issue in Asia, namely poverty. The second was a seminar on Catholic spirituality. And the third was a presentation by Domus Cordis, a Jakarta-based Catholic youth group that carries out various activities across the country.
Other groups of young people provided some entertainment; for example, some youths from the Archdiocese of Semarang presented a puppet show.
During the three-day meeting, Mgr Syukur, who for two years has encouraged the faithful in his diocese to read the Bible every day, said that "we must build the Church as a messenger of God's words . . . We are called to make the Scriptures a habit in the daily life of our community. The more frequently they read the Bible, the more they will love to read it."
For the bishop, "It is important that the Holy Scriptures be a fruitful resource and the main source of inspiration for all the activities of the Church."
(Francis Xavier Rickoloes Pricorianto contributed to this article)