Court ruling favors Church appeal

BANDUNG, Indonesia (UCAN) — An administrative court in West Java has ruled in favor of the Catholics in a dispute with local residents and authorities over building a church.

The construction of a chapel at St. Mary’s Mission Station stalled after the district head revoked building permits under pressure from Muslim hardliners.

That was overturned by the court which said the withdrawal of the permit was against the existing law.

Church authorities were overjoyed but unsurprised by the ruling.

“Since the beginning we believed that we would win,” Father Yustinus Hilman Pujiatmoko from Holy Cross Parish in Purwakarta district told UCA News after the decision yesterday [Feb. 15].

St. Mary’s chapel has belonged to the Holy Cross Church since January when it took it over from Christ the King Church.

The priest said the revocation of the permit had forced more than 700 Catholics to conduct services in a factory warehouse in Bukit Indah Industrial City (BIC). “These Catholics really need a worship house,” he said. “But they learned from the case that they cannot always get everything they need smoothly.”

The case was filed on Nov. 5 by Crosier Father Agustinus Made, parish priest of Christ the King Church. The building of houses of worship is governed by a longstanding joint ministerial decree.

The court decision affirmed that all necessary requirements were fulfilled and approved by the village head as well as the district’s Interreligious Communication Forum (FKUB). Written recommendations of the district’s religious affairs department and FKUB were also enclosed.

Yet the district’s religious affairs department and FKUB withdrew their recommendations following a vote in Bungursari sub-district office that was attended only by 53 local people, conducted after pressure from a group of Muslim hardliners.

A lawyer for the defendants told UCA News they would appeal against the decision.

IJ08847.1589 February 16, 2010 33 EM-lines (297 words)

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