| International News

Father Yohanes Mardiwidayat, a Javanese priest, incorporated ruwatan into an inculturated Mass held Nov. 26 in the parish hall of St. John the Apostle Church in Pringwulung, Sleman district, 420 kilometers (about 260 miles) southeast of Jakarta.

According to traditional Javanese belief some people are predestined to encounter misfortune due to the configuration of births in their family, and ruwatan is needed to ward this off. Included in this category of sukerta are only children, two siblings, three siblings with the middle child of a different gender than the other two, five siblings of the same gender or four of one and one of the other, and three brothers with three sisters.

Father Mardiwidayat told about 300 Catholics at the Mass, "Actually our Baptism has spiritually purified us from sins and united us with Christ, but today we observe a Catholic ruwatan that helps us live our faith life in accordance with local culture."

The 89 sukerta, mostly ethnic Javanese but also a few Chinese, came from Yogyakarta, considered the Javanese cultural capital, and other cities in the central Java area such as Semarang, Solo and Magelang. Sleman district is in Yogyakarta province. Certain accidents also make a person sukerta, not just birth configurations.

Even as Catholics, sukerta on Java Island do not feel comfortable without ruwatan, Father Mardiwidayat acknowledged, telling the Massgoers they should not be confused if someone asks why baptized Catholics undergo ruwatan.

Emphasizing the need for local Catholics to encounter God within their Javanese cultural milieu, the priest told the group in his homily, "We perform ruwatan so that people do not consider us strangers."

The adapted ruwatan rite was performed after the homily. First the sukerta bowed deeply, touching their knees and heads to the ground in front of their parents to show respect and ask for blessings. Those whose parents were not present bowed down before Father Mardiwidayat.

Then the priest cut tips off their hair, symbolically removing impurity and disharmony with the cosmos. Intrinsic to the traditional ritual is a "magic formula," but instead of this the priest read from the Gospel of St. John (3:1-21), in which Jesus speaks of being "born again" of the Spirit.

The interior of the church had been decorated in traditional ways. Yellow young coconut leaves hung near the entrance while a gunungan, a mountain-shaped piece of leather used in shadow-puppet plays, hung on the wall behind the altar. In front of the altar were a cone of rice with vegetables, other dishes such as a cooked whole chicken, water containing three different flowers, bananas and traditional snacks.

At the conclusion of the rite, Father Mardiwidayat blessed the flower water and sprinkled it on the people to bless them. He then urged the people to do only what is good. "Is there something bad in ruwatan?" he asked. "No!" was the simultaneous response from the congregation.

After Mass, a group of Catholics that included lay ministers drove to Laut Kidul (southern sea) to throw away the hair and the shoulder shawls the sukerta wore during the ruwatan. This symbolized bringing them back to God through Mary, star of the sea.