Governance and Peace for Papua: Where is the Catholic Church?

Abstract

One of the oldest and largest transnational religious actors, the Catholic Church, had significant  contributions in promoting peace around the globe. For example, the highest leader of the  Church, Pope John Paul II opposed George W. Bush’s war policy in Iraq. This paper aims to  contextualize the issue into a different case study, especially to the extent it responds to a crisis  that takes place in Indonesia’s restive region, Papua. It is worth noting that Papua remains in  prolonged conflict for decades between the government and armed groups who sought independence. Exploring the Church’s role in that issue matters to highlight the importance of  non-state religious actors in peace governance which International Relations study tends to  overlook, considering its nature that is very state-centric. There are two layers of analysis within  this paper. First, it explored the notion of peace according to the Catholic Church. The second  part demonstrated to what extent it participates in the peace governance in Papua. This  research employs a qualitative methodology with desk reviews. It suggested that the Catholic  Church has played a role to promote peace in Papua, despite there is internal split within the  Church to advocate the issue. Popes’ visits to Indonesia and the effort to conduct Catholic  international meetings were part of the peace advocacy.