Seminary Formation Fund, Indonesia

The fund will help Indonesian seminarians in their studies and religious formation at the Sto. Franciscus Xavier Maria Bianchi Formation House. In June 2013, the Barnabite Fathers expanded its apostolic activity to Indonesia, where Catholic presence is a minority. It consists of more than 17 000 islands, where small Catholic communities are found on the main Islands. The Barnabite Fathers have established Sto. Franciscus Xavier Maria Bianchi Formation House in the Diocese of Maumere and currently, we have currently 10 seminarians under our care (distributed among Philosophy 9, Theology 1 students), frequenting the university 15 kilometers away from the city. Most of the seminarians comes from big families and their parents have difficulties sending enough money to pay for their tuition fees, board, and lodgings. In the religious and pastoral aspect, the diocese needs help from the religious congregations that are present in the Diocese. Considering that the Diocese has an area of 1732 square kilometers with a total population 300,328 out of which Catholics are 91% (274,273). These Catholics are being served by 62 Diocesan priests and 134 religious priests. The ratio of priests to Catholics in Indonesia is approximately 1 to 1428. Therefore, we need to train more local young Indonesian so that the local Church will be able to serve the faithful even in the most remote part of the Diocese. Most of the time due to the lack of priests many of these communities will have to wait even for a year to have mass celebrated in their small chapels. Our religious Congregation shoulders the expenses in their spiritual formations, but we need some external monetary support to cover the academic cost and living allowances. The vocation campaign has been severely hampered by the current pandemic. Please consider supporting their vocations.