“My name is Dimas, like the good thief,” he says with that smile that characterizes many Asians. He tells us about his life and how his mother, a Muslim, converted to Catholicism.
Dimas Kusuma Wijaya is a young seminarian from Indonesia who is in Pamplona studying at the University of Navarra and resides and is training at the International Seminary of Bidasoa. He welcomes us with a smile while we have an interview about his life, his family, and his call to vocation.
A seminarian in a family of thirteen Muslim brothers
“Indonesia is one of the countries in the world with the largest number of Muslims. My mother comes from a large Muslim family, her parents and thirteen brothers. When she met my father, she felt a call to convert to Christianity”, says Dimas.
During their courtship, his father explained to her how Christians live the Catholic faith. My mother was clearly very excited. On the other hand, when my mother spoke to her father, my grandfather, told her something very nice: “If you have known another religion that is good, you have to go deeper into it.” My grandfather supported and respected my mother, says this Indonesian seminarian.
At the age of 8, after marrying his father
In 2000, eight years after marrying his father, his mother converted to Christianity. “It was a great moment, a great impact on her life, because from that moment on, already Catholic, she tried hard to live like a good Christian. She was very content and happy. And she truly felt that this religion was the true one. Because in the end, the encounter with Jesus, the Son of God, changed her life and her way of seeing life and family,” says Dimas.
He also explains that it took her eight years to convert because her parents worked from one place to another, and they did not have a fixed home. This was a difficulty for settling into a parish and for his mother to receive catechism classes and doctrinal training.
“My mother’s faith has been everything to me”
Excited, Dimas says that his mother’s faith taught him everything. “Her way of life in a country like Indonesia, and her example in how she professed her faith, were the seed that ignited my vocation to the priesthood. She taught me to pray every morning and every night. She took me to Church, and she has always shown me how a Christian should live and how to face challenges. My mother’s faith has been everything to me. A faith so alive and real that it has taught me everything.”
Now, his mother is very happy to have a son on the path to the priesthood. In addition, his mother’s entire family, who are Muslim, with great respect for each other, support him in his vocation as a Catholic priest.
In his pre-adolescence, he wanted to change his life
But he also went through a somewhat rebellious pre-adolescence, “As a teenager I wanted to change my life. I didn’t want to study, I just wanted to have fun. In short, I did whatever I wanted. And to change all that, I thought the best way was to enter the minor seminary, a place where they would help me to be better. But, of course, in the end God not only changed my life, but also my vocation,” he says, impressed.
He remembers the most intense moment of his calling, one day when in front of the Blessed Sacrament he felt an enormous peace, a great joy when he experienced that God was asking him to give himself to others. In the end, he heard how God was calling him.
“I heard a voice that told me: Dimas, look, there are people who need you, and there will be more people who will need you. From that moment of prayer and feeling that I could help others, I wanted to be a priest. I want to be with God and I want to help people in need in all their desires.”
A Faculty of Theology in Surabaya
Thus, at the age of 15, Dimas entered the minor seminary. At 18, he attended the preparatory seminary. When he was 20, his bishop sent him to Spain, to the Bidasoa International Seminary, to train him properly to become a priest in the ecclesiastical faculties of the University of Navarra.
“I have just finished my first training course. My bishop wants to set up the theology faculty in Surabaya, my diocese, and that is why every two years he tries to send seminarians to study in Bidasoa,” he explains.
His younger brother is a Dominican
Dimas has another younger brother who is a seminarian of the Ordo Predicatorum of the Dominicans, who studies Philosophy in Manila, the Philippines. He also has two older sisters: one married who lives in Tokyo and the second sister who is a professor of Psychology at a university in Jakarta.
Indonesia, a country with six major religions
How do Catholics live in Indonesia, a country with numerous Muslims? Is there respect between the confessions? Dimas answers us: “I have to say that right now there is more tolerance between us, but it depends on where the Christians live. There are cities where it is very difficult to set up a parish or a church. We must also take into account that Indonesia is very plural. There are Muslims, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, followers of Confucianism and Protestant Christians. Six major religions coexist in Indonesia.”
The characteristics of a young priest
He is aware that, when he returns to his country, one of the challenges he must face will be tolerance and respect between religions. And on this path, which he has just begun towards the priesthood, he considers that one of the main characteristics that a young priest must have is humility.
“A young priest is like a baby who has just been born. He has to learn a lot in his priestly vocation. He must know how to listen to others and above all to God. With humility, one can have a good life, because his ego and ambition will not direct him, but rather it will be God himself who will direct and accompany him in his life. Only with humility can a priest live his priestly vocation very well, because then one will experience that in reality the power of God will accompany him in all his pastoral work,” concludes this young seminarian from Indonesia.
