BAJAWA (INDONESIA)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
October 8, 2024
By UCA News reporter
The 27-year-old was convicted of molesting his juniors at a seminary on Catholic-majority island of Flores
A former major seminarian in Indonesia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually abusing minors at a seminary.
Engelbertus Lowa Sada, 27, was held guilty of molesting 10 students at the St. John Berchmans Mataloko Minor Seminary on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.
Judge Theodora Usfunan at the Bajawa District Court in Ngada Regency also imposed a fine of 500 million rupiah (US$30,000). The inability to pay will result in an additional six months in prison for Sada.
The former seminarian was further ordered to pay 24.8 million rupiah as restitution to the minor victims. The Oct. 2 order was made public on Oct. 7.
Azas Tigor Nainggolan, a Catholic lawyer and coordinator of Indonesian bishops’ Advocacy and Human Rights Forum, said Sada got away with a “lighter” sentence “while the victims will experience prolonged trauma.”
The prosecutor had sought 15 years in prison and a fine of 1 billion rupiah. “The judge should have imposed a heavier sentence so that it would have a deterrent effect,” Nainggolan told UCA News.
He hoped the Catholic Church would be more careful in dealing with cases of sexual abuse in future.
“Cases of abuse by priests, brothers, or anyone within the church must be brought to the notice of the national legal system because it is not an ordinary crime,” Nainggolan added.
Sada was a member of the Capuchin religious order but was expelled after police began a probe against him.
The parents of one of the victims first reported him on April 22 last year, followed by other victims.
Sada abused his victims while he was doing a one-year pastoral orientation program at the seminary. He was teaching minor seminarians as part of the pastoral program.
He started the mandatory pastoral orientation after completing four years of philosophy and some theology studies at St. Peter Major Seminary in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra.
He was supposed to study for another two years before being ordained priest.
The court order said he molested the victims while conducting their medical examinations at the seminary’s polyclinic.
Police named Sada a suspect in August last year, but did not immediately detain him as he cooperated with the investigation.
However, he fled in November ahead of a psychological examination and was arrested from a parish in North Sumatra on Feb. 28.
Sada’s sentencing is the third such case within the Catholic Church in Indonesia in recent years.
In 2021, Syharil Marbun, a church official at St. Herkulanus Parish, Bogor Diocese was sentenced to 15 years in prison for molesting altar boys.
In 2022, Lukas Ngalngola, known as Brother Angelo, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing boys at an orphanage near the national capital Jakarta.