A friend recently returned from Indonesia and told me that the world’s largest seminary is in that country. I found that hard to believe. Is it true?
It is true. Like you, I found it hard to believe. If someone had asked me in which country the largest seminary was, I would have guessed it was in a country like Nigeria, the Philippines or Poland, but not in a predominantly Muslim country like Indonesia, where Catholics make up only 3 per cent of the population.
The seminary is St Paul’s Major Seminary, located on a hill in the middle of the jungle on the island of Flores in a place called Ledalero, nine kilometres from the town of Maumere. The seminary has more than 1000 students, with more than 600 of them candidates for the priesthood. In addition to diocesan seminarians there are many from religious orders.
Flores is one of the Eastern-most islands in the archipelago extending from the Indonesian island of Java towards East Timor. Catholics in Flores make up some 84 per cent of a total population of some two million. There are more than 2,700 Catholic churches on the island.
The Catholic faith first arrived in Flores in the sixteenth century, brought by Portuguese traders and missionaries. Dominican priests played an important part in the initial work of evangelisation, taking the faith not only to Flores but also to the neighbouring islands of Timor and Solor.
St Paul’s Seminary was founded by the Divine Word Missionaries, who had been active in Flores since 1912. Responding to the call from Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) to educate local clergy in mission territories, by his Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud (30 November 1919), the Divine Word Missionaries established a minor seminary for the formation of secondary school students in 1926. This led to establishment of St Paul’s Major Seminary in 1937. At the beginning, the students were novices in the Divine Word missionaries, but soon they were joined by local youth who would become diocesan priests, and by students from other religious orders.
Before they arrived, the area of Ledalero was virtually deserted. The indigenous people avoided the area because they believed it was inhabited by evil spirits. Ever since the seminary was built, the place has been transformed, becoming a focus of Catholic life. Interestingly, in the local language, Ledalero means literally a place where the sun is leaning. The seminary has truly become a beacon of light, not only for the region but for the world.
As of a few years ago, more than 5,800 students had completed their studies there, including 19 bishops, 1,822 priests and 3,978 lay men and women. One of the early graduates was the second Indonesian to be ordained a bishop, Gabriel Manek, SVD.
Even though, when the Divine Word missionaries arrived, Flores was a mission territory, over the years the seminary has sent missionaries all over the world. Since the early 1980s, the Divine Word Missionaries alone have sent more than 500 missionaries from Ledalero to Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa, and numerous countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the other religious communities with students there have sent many.
In 1969 the seminary was established as the Ledalero Catholic School of Philosophy and Theology so that it could award degrees recognised by the government. The Indonesian government granted approval for the school in that same year. In 1971 the government recognised the bachelor’s degree and in 2004 it recognised the degree of Master of Theology. In addition to the seminarians, many lay people have studied for these degrees.
In recent times the number of students in all these programs has risen to over 1500, including the seminarians. St Paul’s Seminary is truly a remarkable achievement.