ASIA/INDONESIA - Contemplation and apostolate in Kalimantan: the Jubilee of the Augustinian Sisters of Divine Mercy

Ketapang (Agenzia Fides) - Their monastery is a place of prayer and spirituality, immersed in the green lungs of the rainforest. The Augustinian Sisters in the province of West Kalimantan have always considered prayer as the "breath of the soul", as oxygen for personal and community life. For 75 years the sisters have been present in the heart of a remote province in Indonesian Borneo and for them this is the concrete expression of what oxygen does for an organism: it generates life. The Augustinian Sisters of Divine Mercy (OSA) began their mission in Borneo in 1949 with the arrival of a small delegation of five sisters from the Netherlands. Since then they have led a life of contemplation and active commitment here: they have combined prayer with the care of health and educational facilities and founded a boarding school for girls from the local population, the indigenous Dayak. Over the years, new vocations have emerged, and today there are many local nuns who continue the mission of the congregation, while the first Dutch sisters, now older, have returned to Europe. Their presence was and is valuable for the entire diocesan community of Ketapang, as Bishop Pius Riana Prapdi emphasized during a Eucharistic celebration to commemorate 75 years of missionary presence and to celebrate "the special anniversary year." "The Augustinian sisters began their mission in an unknown and remote area, which is still characterized by impassable terrain, where you travel on rivers full of rapids and muddy roads," said the bishop. But the sisters' dedication and determination to do good in the name of the Gospel prevailed: they founded health facilities and schools in many rural and mountainous areas and "left a unique mark on the pastoral mission of the diocese of Ketapang." Among the 21 Dutch nuns whose order has been active in the mission in Kalimantan for 75 years, Sister Dionne Appelman, now 84 years old, returned to Kalimantan to participate in the Jubilee Eucharist. For her, it was "an immersion in a past marked by the providence and grace of God": "I am very happy that the seeds of religious vocations and apostolic works have sprouted and produced good fruit," Sister Dionne Appelman told Fides. "We have been active in Indonesia for 75 years, especially in the diocese of Ketapang. It is a long history marked by joys and sorrows, great sacrifices and incessant struggles. But it has always been a history of salvation that continues to this day thanks to our Indonesian sisters." "The work of God carried out by the Dutch missionary sisters has borne rich fruit," says Sister Ignatia, Indonesian religious and Superior General of the Congregation of the Augustinian Sisters of Mercy in Indonesia, to Fides. Today the sisters are active in Indonesia in the regions of West Kalimantan (dioceses of Ketapang, Pontianak, Sintang and Sanggau), on the island of Java (in the dioceses of Jakarta, Malang and Surabaya) and in the region of Papua (diocese of Manokwari-Sorong). In total, there are 136 Augustinian sisters in Indonesia: 96 sisters with perpetual vows, 25 with temporary vows, 12 novices and 3 postulants. About 70 of them live in the West Kalimantan region. (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 1/3/2025)

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