Bandung diocese covers 19,255.75 square kilometers and includes the districts of Bandung, Garut, Indramayu, Karawang, Kuningan, Majalengka, Purwakarta, Subang, Sumedang, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis, Cirebon and the municipalities of Bandung, Cirebon, Cimahi, Tasikmalaya, and Banjar, all in West Java province.
The Church of Bandung started in Cirebon in 1878, but the mission station had a permanent priest only in 1907. In 1908, the Ursuline Sisters started a school in Jl. Merdeka, just downtown of Bandung, in the same place they opened Ursuline novitiate. In 1921, Charles Borromeo Sisters opened a hospital in Bandung and in 1928 the Jesuits handed four mission stations to the Crosier Fathers.
Bandung became an Apostolic Prefecture on April 20, 1932. During that year, the total number of Catholics was 11,465, of whom 10,965 were foreigners. Bandung became an apostolic vicariate on Oct. 16, 1941, with 19,747 Catholics of whom only 1,416 were Indonesians.
Crosier Father J. H. Goumans was appointed apostolic vicar of Bandung in 1942. In 1952, Crosier Father Petrus Marinus Arntz replaced him.
In January 1961, Pope John XXIII established the Catholic hierarchy in Indonesia. Bandung was declared a diocese on Jan. 3, 1961, and Father Arntz its bishop. In that year, Bandung had 14,459 Catholics of whom 9,830 were Indonesians. The number of Indonesian Catholics increased following the mass conversion of the followers of the local mysticism called Agama Djawa Sunda (ADS, Sunda-Java religion) -- the religion of the villagers of Cigugur, Kuningan, West Java province -- to Catholicism in 1964. In 1965, the number of Catholics was 19,878, with 339 of them foreigners.
Bishop Arntz died on April 25, 1984, and Bishop Alexander Soetandio Djajasiswaja replaced him. Bishop Djajasiswaja died on Jan. 19, 2006. Since then the diocese has been headed by Crosier Father Markus Priyo Kushardjono as administrator.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Father Johannes Maria Trilaksyanta Pujasumarta bishop of Bandung, on May 17, 2008. His Episcopal ordination was on July 16 the same year.
