A Jakarta youth group has introduced seminarians in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province to the late Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.

The Domus Cordis youth group organized a program from Sept. 10-12 at St. Peter’s Church in Lahurus, Belu district, for more than 50 seminarians taking pastoral orientation classes at the Atambua major seminary.

Father Yohanes Senda Laka, one of the group’s advisers, told ucanews.com that the program aimed “to help the seminarians find a strong foundation for their religious vocation.”

“The group helped the seminarians make a choice in their life: being priests or getting married,” added Father Kristoforus Oki, an assistant priest at St Peter’s.

Seminar sessions included talks on the priesthood, marriage, abortion and free sex as well as discussions and sharings.

“The visitors talked about the Theology of the Body from both a spiritual and physical perspective, which was very interesting,” one seminarian told ucanews.com.

Pope John Paul II first developed his Theology of the Body in a series of lectures at the beginning of his long pontificate.

Meanwhile, Domus Cordis executive director, Rico Ariefano, said that a lack of spiritual formation in the family and a lack of response by the Church to religious vocations were the main reasons why young people do not participate in Church activities.

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