Indonesia’s Covid-hit religious leaders give hope to their flocks

More than 200 Christian and 605 Muslim religious leaders are thought to have died from Covid-19 in the country

The nature of their job, which can require travel to various congregations, leaves them exposed. Yet they are stoic; now, they say, is when their flocks need them most

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Women in Indonesia queue to receive a dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:30am, 15 Aug 2021Updated: 10:35am, 15 Aug 2021

On July 28, Pastor Marselinus Monang Sijabat, the head of the St Lusia Church in Pakpak Bharat Regency in North Sumatra, Indonesia, began to feel decidedly unwell.

By August 2, the Catholic priest, 42, had received a double diagnosis – typhus and Covid-19.

Sijabat couldn’t be sure where he caught the coronavirus; due to the nature of his work it could have been any number of places.

“Even in this pandemic, I still have to do my job,” he said. “I am still going to serve my community because that is my vow, and I can’t stop other people in turn from travelling to other places before they meet me.”

In Indonesia, it is not unusual for members of the clergy to serve dozens of churches, often spread out across remote rural areas, leaving them highly exposed to the coronavirus. More than 200 Christian religious leaders are thought to have died from Covid-19 in Indonesia, which has recorded over 115,000 deaths and more than 3.8 million infections during the pandemic so far.

And it is not just Christian leaders. On the same day that Sijabat received his coronavirus diagnosis, Indonesia’s Vice-President Ma’ruf Amin announced that 605 Muslim religious leaders had died from the virus, telling the nation their service could not be “rewarded with mere material things”.