Father Carolus: Spreading Goodness Across Religion

His figure is rarely caught on camera, he is not a social media artist or political figure who often appears on television. But the people who know him pay their respects to him. He is Charles Patrick or often called Father Carolus, a priest of the Parish of St. Stephanus in Cilacap. Once he saw it, he understood that he was not from Indonesia. He is of Irish descent who became an Indonesian citizen (WNI) since 33 years ago.

He first arrived in Indonesia in 1973 and set foot in Cilacap Regency, Central Java. His mission at that time was to serve and help the poor in Kampung Laut, Nusakambangan Island. Why Sea Village? Because at that time Kampung Laut was a place of exile for party sympathizers who were 'banned' and seemed untouched.

Instead of just compassion, he fell in love with Kampung Laut. His love brought him to the interfaith mission to start moving to help people's lives. Initially he built roads and bridges gradually. Even though access to Kampung Laut is difficult, the intention has never subsided.

After ten years of living in Cilacap, he finally exchanged citizenship and developed the interfaith mission wing he initiated. He founded the Social Bina Sejahtera Foundation (YSBS) which with the initial goal of smoothing and managing the road construction process.

After the road construction is complete he invites the community to alleviate poverty by empowering themselves using the potential of the surroundings. Like learning to make salted fish and plant land with plants that can add income.

"Everyone has the ability to progress without having to wait for help from others as long as they want to use every opportunity and try," said the message of love that is always instilled in the minds of the community.

Father Carolus is not alone, the local government supports every program. Thanks to his hard work, the foundation he founded successfully built 25 schools from kindergarten to high school in Cilacap and surrounding areas. There are even schools for children with special needs.

According to him, education is the key to change, including poverty alleviation. Not only that, he through his foundation also has a program in the field of health to help the community.

Father Carolus is known to be far from technology, even he does not use gadgets to support his daily life. Perhaps, this is the reason why this priest is rarely touched by the media. He only focused on the mission he brought from the beginning. Serve across faith, based on universal religious values.

In 2012, Father Carolus was awarded the Maarif Award, an institution that actively encourages, strengthens and expands public participation in maintaining democratic values, human rights, diversity and humanity. He was chosen to be a figure who actively cared for and fought for humanity based on universal religious values.

In addition to building roads, bridges, business development programs, education and health he also runs other humanitarian programs such as disaster emergency response actions, environmental preservation, to provide assistance for death row inmates in Nusakambangan. All that was done regardless of religious background.

The life story of the man who was born on April 8, 1943 has also been recorded with the title, "Irish Mafia in Kampung Laut, Traces of the Humanity of Father Carolus OMI Fighting for Humanity" written by Anastasia Anjar and the team.

Father Carolus's age is no longer young, but his enthusiasm has never aged. He always cared for and fought for humanity without being limited by religious barriers. Hopefully what he has done for this country, we are able to emulate by caring for and maintaining humanity across faith. ** yr

Source

http://maarifinstitute.org/id/maarif-award/penerima-maarif-award/7/penerima-maarif-award-2012—romo-carolus