MAUMERE: Arnoldus Yansen thought for certain he was going to become a Catholic priest, just like his older brother, cousin and uncle.
He attended St. Peter Major Seminary, a bastion of priestly vocations located in the middle of a jungle on Flores, a predominantly Catholic island in Muslim-majority Indonesia. Known familiarly as Ritapiret Seminary, St. Peter Major has produced 13 bishops, more than 580 diocesan priests and 23 deacons in nearly 70 years of existence.
A former seminarian Arnoldus Yansen works on a computer at Ledalero Institute of Philosophy and Creative Technology in Maumere, East NusaTenggara province, Indonesia, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024.
But Yansen won’t be among them. He tried to shake off what he thought were last-minute jitters before entering the priesthood. Instead, Yansen took off his clerical robes for good and joined the hundreds of prospective priests who resign or fail to take up Catholic vocations every year in Indonesia. –Agencies
