On July 14, 2024, one priest and five Camillian deacons were ordained at St. Camillus Major Seminary in Nita, Flores Island of Indonesia. The previous day was blessed with ten new candidates for the novitiate, eleven novices for their temporary profession, nineteen scholastics for the renewal of vows, while five professed were consecrated in perpetual vows. To see these young people embracing the Camillian spirit to become the future face of the Indonesian Camillian Delegation and of the Order of the Ministers of the Infirm was a cause for great joy.

The fifteen years of Indonesian mission life have been the result of commitment, determination and great missionary enthusiasm. The journey of preparation has been long and courageous which began in 1997 when Fr. Luigi Galvani MI first set foot in Indonesia with the purpose of exploring and initiating a new mission.

After visiting various places and cities such as Manado, Jakarta, Malang and the island of Flores, Fr. Luigi returned to Manila in the Philippines, where he had been a missionary for more than 20 years, and presented to his superiors the possible dream of starting a Camillian mission in Indonesia. This was also motivated by the fact that Indonesia was considered one of the most promising countries for priestly and religious vocations.

The prospects for vocations, in fact, seemed really encouraging and this was quite unique considering that in Indonesia the predominant religion is Islam with almost 88 percent of the faithful (about 200 million out of 240) making it the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. The rest of the population on the other hand includes Protestants (5%), Catholics (3%), Buddhists (2%) and Hindus (2%).

Starting a new missionary venture was certainly a serious problem, due to the lack of religious personnel. The intuition then was to invite the young Indonesian men to the Philippines for training.  After careful consideration, it was decided to move from ideas to action.  This took place in May 2000 with the arrival of an initial group of 7 young Indonesians from Flores Island in Manila, which was followed by a second group of five more in 2001, all from Flores Island.

Having completed the long period of formation in Manila, on July 2, 2009, Fr. Luigi brought that small group of pioneers back to Indonesia, formally starting the Camillian presence in the country. Their first lodging was in a rented cottage in the town of Maumere, Flores Island, also called the “promised land” of vocations.  In fact, there are hundreds of religious men and women from this island working as missionaries in different countries around the world today. The choice of Maumere was motivated not only by reasons of formation, but also by the fact that the Catholic Church’s largest philosophical and theological seminary in the world, also nicknamed “little Vatican,” was located there, with some 1,400 seminarians from five dioceses and some 15 religious institutes on the island.

After spending a couple of years in a rented house, the small group moved into the first Camillian seminary in Nita on November 15, 2012. Three years later, in 2015, the Ruteng Seminary for young aspirants was opened, then the Maumere Theologate in 2017, and finally the Kupang Novitiate in 2023.

Such encouraging growth is surely due to the serious work of the mission in the task of formation of young people preparing them to become the new laborers in expanding the Gospel and the Order in the world.

In addition to the commitment to formation, the Camillian charism of service to the sick has been lived through various social and pastoral initiatives such as pastoral care at the government hospital in the city of Maumere, the laudable project of liberating dozens of mentally ill people kept bound in chains, and the monthly food support program for hundreds of needy families.

Currently, the Camillian presence extends to the islands of Flores and Timor, the most Catholic of Indonesia’s 17,000 islands. In Flores, in addition to the philosophy and theology formation houses of Nita and the house for aspirants in Ruteng, there is also St. Camillus Social Center in Misir in Maumere an ideal place for seminars and formation meetings. In Timor Island, on the other hand, the Camillians are present in the city of Kupang with the Novitiate and the new St. Camillus Social Center in Lasiana.

After fifteen years of its foundation, the Indonesian Camillian mission can count today 16 priests (14 Indonesian, 1 Italian, 1 Pakistani), 6 deacons, 29 scholastics (27 Indonesian and 2 Pakistani), 10 novices (8 Indonesian, 1 Pakistani, 1 Timorese), 35 postulant-philosophers (34 Indonesian, 1 Timorese) and 18 aspirants (16 Indonesian, 1 Pakistani, 1 Timorese).

Surely, in these fifteen years, the missionary work has been blessed by divine grace with numerous vocations that help us look to the future with hope and dream of further expansion of the charism, realizing the dream of St. Camillus, who said, “One day, the hands of my followers will reach the whole world.”

Fr. Luigi Galvani MI