SW News: Indonesian Catholics are paying homage to the last Dutch-born missionary priest in the country who passed away at the age of 82. Fr Albertus Bernardus Gerardus Joseph Smit was the last in the long line of Holland-born missionaries who resuscitated the Catholic faith in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Belonging to the Sacred Heart Congregation, Fr Smit belonged to the diocese of Manado in North Sulawesi province and was famous as a Latin expert and seminary formator. He passed away on August 11 in the Gunung Maria Hospital in Tomohon City from age-related ailments. His mortal remains were placed in the chapel of St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in Kakaskasen village. He was laid to rest in the cemetery within the seminary premises on August 13 after a funeral ceremony presided over by Bishop Benedictus Estephanus Rolly Untu, who also belongs to the Sacred Heart Congregation.

Hailing from Goor in the Netherlands, Fr Smit was born in 1940 and he arrived in the diocese in 1967. Most of his ecclesiastical duties were centered around the seminary where he taught Latin. He is also credited with penning a Latin primer entitled Elementa Linguae Latinae (Basic Aspects of Latin). For a brief while, he served as vicar in St Anthony of Padua Church in Taratara village and the church dedicated to the same saint in Tataaran village. He was also the rector of St Therese of Carmel Monastery in Kakaskasen village from 1988 to 2006.

Mourning the demise of Fr Smit, his confrere Fr Johanis Mangkey, the former provincial superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, told UCA News, “He was the last Dutch-born missionary in the diocese of Manado. Now we have no more missionaries from the Netherlands.” The priest said that Fr Smit had been suffering from illness since 2019. However, he retained his zeal for nurturing seminarians.

Fr Mangkey said, “I was one of his students at the seminary. He was a Latin expert who paid very serious attention to the education of seminarians. He was strict and disciplined. He had a great commitment.” He added that the Dutch priest also set a good example. “I often saw him walking around the seminary’s hallway and reciting the rosary. It impressed me very much.”

Fr Mangkey is hopeful that the Dutch priest’s resting place in the seminary complex will be a symbol of his good service for more than half a century to the diocese.

Although Christianity arrived in Indonesia during the Portuguese colonial era, it was only in the 19th century that Catholicism started to make inroads with the arrival of the Dutch missionaries. It was in the early years of the 19th century that Dutch Catholic priests were allowed to enter Indonesia at a time when it was under the rule of the Netherlands. In 1808, eight years after the nation’s governance was taken over by the Dutch government after the suppression of the VOC or Dutch East India Company, the first set of Catholic priests landed in Indonesia. They mainly labored among the Eurasians, Dutch expatriates and Chinese migrants.

Evangelization got a shot in the arm with the arrival of Dutch Jesuit Fr Francis van Lith SJ (1863–1926) in 1896. He is credited with re-evangelizing Central Java, especially the indigenous communities. The baptism of four chiefs on May 20, 1904, and the mass baptism of 168 Javanese at the holy spring of Sendangsono on December 15 were turning points in the history of the Church in this part of Indonesia. This missionary is credited with educating the first generation of Javanese priests and nationalist leaders.