Archbishop reopens 50 year old church in INDONESIA

(September 10, 2011) A 50-year-old church building in Aimere, Ngada district in East Nusa Tenggara, a Province of Indonesia, was reopened Thursday by Archbishop Vincentius Sensi Potokota of Ende after being renovated three times. The reconstruction of the 1,500 sq m Church of St Francis of Assisi and St Clara has cost 2.3 billion rupiah (about US$270,600) This fund came from 6,038 parishioners – whose main livelihood are farming and fishing- and from donors. In his homily during the blessing ceremony the prelate said that a church building must be physically and technically sound. “Whatever we build, it must be built on a strong foundation,” he maintained. He believed that the parishioners had worked hard to build the church in order to make it easier for them “to build the real temple of God, which is our life as God’s followers.” The blessing ritual included the slaughter of a buffalo done symbolically by Archbishop Potokota. Traditionally, such slaughter is led by a custom leader and aims to thank the ancestors for being able to finish the construction of a traditional house. “Since it was a church, the slaughter was done symbolically by the archbishop,” Martinus Mada, secretary of the parish council, said.