The Religious Affairs Ministry has now apologized for this, but given the Pope of Rome’s positions on Islam, how did any of the Catholics notice? Or if they did notice, why did they think anything was amiss? After all, in September 2017, Pope Francis met in the Vatican with Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), a group that has been linked to the financing of jihad terror. During the meeting, al-Issa thanked the Pope for his “fair positions” on what he called the “false claims that link extremism and violence to Islam.” In other words, he thanked the Pope for dissembling about the motivating ideology of jihad terror, which his group has been accused of financing, and for defaming other religions in an effort to whitewash Islam.
The summer before that, Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar, thanked him for his “defense of Islam against the accusation of violence and terrorism.”
Has any other Pope of Rome in the history of Christianity ever been heralded as a “defender of Islam”? But that’s what Francis is. So why should any Catholics in Indonesia have objected to this?
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Is the pope Catholic? Ministry apologizes for appointing Muslim as acting Catholic affairs director-general,” Jakarta Post, February 11, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A bureaucratic blunder caused the Religious Affairs Ministry to appoint a Muslim official as acting head of the Catholic Community Guidance Directorate General, a move that drew online and offline criticism.
Ministry secretary-general Nur Kholis Setiawan took the blame for the gaffe, saying he had given mistaken advice to the ministry’s top brass.
“I apologize for this oversight,” Nur Kholis said in an official ministry press release on Monday night, adding that the ministry would soon appoint a new acting director-general from within the Catholic unit.
Nur himself had been appointed to the role in January, replacing another Muslim official, Muhammadiyah Amin, who had filled the position since the previous director-general Eusabius Binsasi, who was Catholic, retired last July.
Minister Fachrul Razi and Deputy Minister Zainut Tauhid Sa’adi had previously defended both appointments, saying that National Civil Service Agency (BKN) regulations prevented the ministry from putting a Catholic in the position.
However, it turned out the problem was of their own making, stemming from a misreading of a 2019 BKN circular that states civil servants can only be appointed as acting officials in positions “at the same level or one level above” the ones they held.
Ministry leadership apparently interpreted the wording in the circular to mean civil servants could only fill vacant spots that were at the same level or one level below their position.
“In the Catholic Community Guidance Directorate General there is only one echelon 1 position, while the rest are echelon 2 and 3, so it is impossible for the acting head to come from the Catholic directorate general,” Zainut said in a statement on Monday, adding that the Nur Kholis’ appointment was made merely for administrative reasons….
The misstep had been heavily criticized online, with several Twitter users drawing attention to the irony of having a Muslim in charge of Catholic religious affairs.
Twitter user @darmanto0802, for example, tweeted an imaginary conversation of someone who might be looking for the director-general.
“Good morning, sir. I’m looking for the Catholic Community Guidance director-general” the questioner asks.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, the director-general is on leave to go on the haj,” comes the reply….