St. Joseph's Church, Semarang

The Roman Catholic Church first entered Semarang, Dutch East Indies, in what is now Central Java, Indonesia, in the early 19th century. In 1808 Father Lambertus Prinsen (1777–1840) was sent from the Netherlands to the Indies as the pastor for Semarang and several surrounding settlements, including Salatiga and Klaten. He quickly established a council for handling religious duties, and baptisms began the following year; fourteen people, mostly Dutch, were baptised in 1809. However, this congregation did not have a church in which they could pray. Until 1815 the congregation used the nearby Immanuel Church, a building intended for Protestants. Between 1815 and 1822 services were held at the homes of members of the congregation, then from 7 August 1822 Mass was held at Prinsen's new home (near Immanuel).[2]

The congregation required its own church building, and already owned land which could be used: in 1828 the Catholics had purchased a former hospital and the surrounding land in Gedangan, near the harbour, and established an orphanage there. However, there were insufficient clergy for further development. Mgr. Joseph Lijnen (1815–82), who had become the congregation's pastor in 1858, left the Indies for Heythuysen, Netherlands. There, he convinced several Franciscan nuns to join him in the Indies and develop the congregation through education and ministry. Upon returning to the Indies, designs were made for a church building across from the orphanage and convent established for the nuns.[3]

The church was designed by Dutch architect W. I. van Bakel in a neogothic style. The construction costs of 110,000 gulden were funded partly by the colonial government, as well as the sale of unused land and donations from Catholics throughout the colony. The first stone was laid by the pastor Lijnen on 1 October 1870, and construction continued smoothly until 12 May 1873, when the nearly completed tower collapsed; various reasons have been put forward, including an insufficient frame and poor quality bricks. After the collapse, the design of the church was modified to be lower, and further construction was undertaken using bricks imported from the Netherlands as ballast for ships. The construction of the building was completed on 12 December 1875, and the church was blessed by Lijnen.[4][5] It was the first Catholic church in the city, and served mostly those of European or mixed descent.[6]

Interior of Gedangan Church

Further additions to the interior were made over the next quarter-century. A new Gothic altar, produced in Düsseldorf, Germany, was installed in 1880. Two years later a communion bench was installed. The tower was also given a clock and bells during this period; the clock was removed in 1978 since the machinery was broken. Lijden died in 1882, and the Jesuit Joannes de Vries became the parish priest, the first in an unbroken line of Jesuit pastors which continues until the present day.[7] De Vries was soon after elected provincial superior for the province, and thus he spent much of his time away from the church. By 1885 there were 1,620 Catholics in Semarang,[8] up from approximately a thousand four years earlier. Many of these were in the colonial military.[9]

J. Keijzer replaced de Vries after the latter's death in 1887 and headed the church for seven years. During his tenure, the church and surrounding grounds were expanded significantly. Construction of a multi-story presbytery began in the 1880s and completed on 1 August 1890. Across the street, in 1888 the nuns established an elementary school, and they also began construction of a chapel for the convent, which was opened on 6 August 1892. During this period the church building received stained glass windows and new pews.[10] Further construction continued into the 20th century. A pipe organ was installed in 1903; it was restored in 1993, but remains in poor condition. Also installed that year were carvings depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross.[11]

At the close of the 19th century the Catholic church in the Indies began targeting the majority-Muslim indigenous population. They were not alone; Protestant missionaries such as Sierk Coolsma of the Netherlands Missionary Union and Mattheus Teffer of the Netherlands Missionary Society had had some success with the Sundanese in Cianjur and Javanese in Ambarawa, respectively.[12][13] Keijzer, before stepping down as head pastor in 1894, sent a letter to the Netherlands asking that men be sent to learn the Javanese language, to enable them to preach to the people and translate the catechism and some prayer books.[14]

Three Jesuits were sent - P. Hebrans in 1895 and P. Hoevanaars and Frans van Lith (1863–1926) in 1896. The three studied Javanese in Gedangan over a period of a year. Ultimately van Lith was the most successful, establishing a school in Muntilan to train teachers, who were hoped to further spread Catholicism through their teaching duties. This eventually led to the establishment of the Kanisius Foundation, which established a number of Catholic schools throughout Java. Furthermore, in 1904 he spearheaded a mass baptism at Kalibawang, Kulon Progo, near Yogyakarta. A total of 168 Javanese were baptised. Van Lith's efforts eventually returned to Semarang, where he established a Kanisius school in the parish of Gedangan in 1924.[15]

By the early 20th century the Catholic population of Semarang had become large enough to support multiple parishes. In 1915 the chapel in Karangpanas, in the southern part of Semarang, was elevated to the status of parish church and dedicated to St. Athanasius. A third church, in the Randusari area of western Semarang, was established in 1927 and became a parish church in 1930. Further parishes were established over the following decades, until in 2000 St. Joseph's Church was one of nine parish churches in the city, serving the subdistricts of East Semarang, Genuk, Sayung, and parts of North Semarang.[16]

In 1940, under recommendation of Mgr. Petrus Willekens, the Apostolic Vicariate of Batavia was divided in two; Semarang became the capital of the new vicariate. The newly appointed vicar apostolic, Mgr. Albertus Soegijapranata (1896–1963), had his seat at the church in Randusari, but lived in the presbytery in Gedangan.[17][18]

During the Japanese occupation, the clergy prevented seizure of the presbytery.

In March 1942 the Indies were occupied by the Empire of Japan.[19] The occupation government captured numerous (mostly Dutch) men and women, both clergy and laymen, and instituted policies that changed how services were held. They forbade the use of Dutch in services and in writing, and seized several church properties; several others, including the presbytery at Gedangan, were protected by the clergy.[20] After two European head pastors, G. Schoonhoff and G. de Quay, were confined, ultimately on 27 August 1943 the ethnic Javanese Soegijapranata took on parish duties in addition to his work as vicar apostolic. Although he promoted non-compliance with Japanese demands considered damaging to the church, Soegijapranata also endorsed some collaboration. For instance, on 28 February 1944 a Latin-language Mass was delivered at Gedangan by Paul Aijiro Yamaguchi, bishop of Nagasaki.[21]

On 17 August 1945, shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and with Japan's defeat an increasing certainty, President Sukarno proclaimed the independence of the Indonesian state. During the ongoing revolution against returning Dutch forces, Europeans were detained (although the Dutch head pastors remained). These detentions, and post-revolution politics which decimated the European population in independent Indonesia, ensured that the congregation remained dominated by the Javanese and other indigenous peoples.[22]

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Gedangan remained a center of Catholic activity in Semarang. The Jesuit provincial superior continued to be placed in the Gedangan presbytery until 1949, when he was moved to the church in Karangpanas, then again from 1954 to 1962 (when he was sent to Karangpanas again). The central offices of the Kanisius Foundation remained on the church grounds until a new office was opened in 1970.[23] Further construction has continued as well: an office building, named Bintang Laut, was completed on 6 August 1988, and renovations to the church building took place in the early 1990s.[24] The church continues to hold regular services, including five on Sundays.[25]