- Feb 5, 2002
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Roughly 500 miles east of Bali lies the island of Flores, a vocational powerhouse that supplies seminarians not only to Indonesia but also to Catholic communities around the world. Catholicism first arrived here in the 16th century, when Portuguese spice traders brought missionaries to the rugged, mountainous island. Today, the faith is deeply rooted, with more than 80% of the island’s 2 million people being Catholic.
Flores hosts several seminaries, most clustered around Maumere on the island’s northern coast. Religious congregations including the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), the Somascan Fathers, the Rogationists, the Vocationists, and the Carmelites all operate seminaries there, creating a dense network of vocational formation rarely found elsewhere in Asia.
Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, of Ende and a native of Flores, stressed the island’s importance not just for the Indonesian Church but for dioceses and religious congregations worldwide.
“Many of the alumni of these seminaries are working outside the country,” he noted, highlighting the island’s contribution to the global clergy. A thriving minor seminary system also feeds this pipeline, which currently has 650 students enrolled at the junior and senior high school level.
Continued below.
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Flores hosts several seminaries, most clustered around Maumere on the island’s northern coast. Religious congregations including the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), the Somascan Fathers, the Rogationists, the Vocationists, and the Carmelites all operate seminaries there, creating a dense network of vocational formation rarely found elsewhere in Asia.
Archbishop Paulus Budi Kleden, SVD, of Ende and a native of Flores, stressed the island’s importance not just for the Indonesian Church but for dioceses and religious congregations worldwide.
“Many of the alumni of these seminaries are working outside the country,” he noted, highlighting the island’s contribution to the global clergy. A thriving minor seminary system also feeds this pipeline, which currently has 650 students enrolled at the junior and senior high school level.
Continued below.
How a remote island in Indonesia forms hundreds of priests for the world
Flores hosts several seminaries, most clustered around Maumere on the island’s northern coast.
www.catholicnewsagency.com
