ASIATODAY.ID, JAKARTA – The 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia Megawati Soekarnoputri met Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The meeting was documented and uploaded via the official Instagram account @vaticannews, Monday, December 18 2023.
“Pope Francis holds a private audience with Ms. Megawati Sukarnoputri, who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004,” wrote the Instagram, quoted from Jakarta.
During the meeting, the General Chair of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI) was seen wearing red clothes. He was accompanied by a number of figures such as the Chair of the Indonesian People’s Representative Council, Puan Maharani, his daughter, and Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly.
On this occasion, Megawati and Pope Francis also exchanged mementos. Megawati gave the Pope a batik gift. He also explained the batik to the Pope.
“This is batik,” said President Soekarno’s daughter to the Pope in the video clip uploaded to Instagram.
Meanwhile, Megawati received a gift of two books from Pope Francis entitled ‘Laodato Si’ and ‘Laudate Deum’ which contain the climate crisis and humanitarian crisis.
“We were given books. “Two books by Pope Francis, in which the books are related to global warming,” said Puan Maharani, adding that the books were given directly by Pope Francis.
Puan said that the book by Pope Francis was extraordinary. The reason is, he commented that the book does not directly teach the values of Pancasila. However, it contains a direct implementation of the values contained in Pancasila.
“The Pope’s book does not directly state Pancasila, but directly implements what is in Pancasila as it seems to be stated in the book,” said Puan.
Puan said that Pope Francis really hopes that his book can be distributed and taught to many people.
Inter-Religious Harmony
Megawati and Pope Francis also discussed several current issues, including inter-religious harmony and the threat of climate change which endangers nature and humans.
“When I met with the group, he [Pope Francis] asked that what was happening in Indonesia in terms of religious harmony be continued,” said Megawati after the meeting which lasted about 15 minutes at the palace complex.
Quoted from the press release, Megawati and the Pope together with the Zayed Award jury met Pope Francis to have a dialogue regarding the judging of the 2024 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity. The meeting between Pope Francis and Megawati and his entourage was warm in one of the rooms.
Member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue of the Holy See, Father Markus Solo Kewuta SVD, also had the opportunity to act as a translator at Pope Francis’ meeting with Megawati and his entourage.
Puan Maharani emphasized that there was no discussion of politics at the meeting between Megawati and Pope Francis.
“We are not talking about politics, we are talking about how we work together to maintain peace,” emphasized Puan.
Furthermore, Puan said that to Pope Francis, Megawati emphasized that the Indonesian people were paying serious attention to maintaining world peace. Apart from that, Megawati also discussed that climate change is greatly affecting the world regarding what is happening with the situation today.
“And then, Pope Francis gave his input that we as fellow human beings must work together to maintain peace, then maintain religious tolerance and ensure peace in the world now and in the future,” said Puan, imitating Pope Francis’ message.
Pope Francis, said Puan, also encouraged Indonesia to continue to maintain and maintain the value of tolerance between religious communities. Moreover, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.
“Indonesia, which consists of various religions, even though it is the largest Muslim country, we also practice tolerance, and Pope Francis said that this must be maintained, and we must work together to ensure that religious tolerance and peace in the world can be maintained,” said Puan. (AT Network)
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