JAYAPURA – The situation in the yard of Christ of the Light the World Catholic Church Waena, Diocese of Jayapura, was reported to have briefly heated up after the implementation of the Holy Mass on Sunday, May 17, 2026.

​The tension was triggered by the existence of unilateral disbandment efforts against the 15th peaceful action held by the Voice of Papuan Catholic Laity group.

​The action which voices rejection against the destruction of living space in South Papua even briefly triggered the presence of police patrol monitoring the situation from outside the church yard.

​The incident began when the action moving orderly after worship was blocked by two parish faithful, namely a citizen named Petrus Wou along with a woman identified as the former Acting Mayor of Jayapura as well as the Chairperson of the Parish Council.

​With a high and confrontational tone, Petrus Wou approached the laity mass while launching insults and a firm expulsion order.

​"Children, you Disband" screamed Petrus Wou in front of the action participants who rejected the disbandment.

​The situation became increasingly complex when the former Acting Mayor of Jayapura also intervened with the pretext of enforcing ethics and church structural authority.

​She asked the action mass to not voice in the parish environment. Despite getting structural and verbal pressure, members of the Voice of Papuan Catholic Laity still stood firm on their stance, triggering a fierce mouth fight before finally the situation slowly subsided independently without physical clash.

​Representatives of the Voice of Papuan Catholic Laity emphasized that the oration and aspiration they did obeyed the rules of order by taking time after the entire series of Holy Mass liturgy celebration ended, so that it did not at all disturb the solemnity of the faithful's worship.

​They viewed that the repressive action shown by the two individuals was a form of blind legitimization and indirect support toward the stance of the Archbishop of Merauke, Mgr. Petrus Canisius Mandagi, MSC, who controversially support the implementation of the National Strategic Project (PSN) in the Anim Ha customary territory, South Papua.

​The shown apathetic and anti-criticism stance was assessed to reflect a big failure in the vision-mission of the Diocese of Jayapura, Catholic Social Teaching (ASG), as well as the noble mandate of the Laudato Encyclical about the protection of the earth as a shared womb.

​On the contrary, this failure was strongly suspected to be born from deep ignorance or deliberate neglect toward the ecological and humanitarian destruction currently taking place in South Papua.

​Based on that reason, this laity group firmly suggested that the Parish Priest along with all the faithful of Waena Parish hold a watch together agenda of the Pesta Babi documentary film in order to open the conscience's eyes toward the existing reality of oppression.

​Furthermore, the laity group urged the Holy See Vatican, the Bishops' Conference of Indonesia (KWI), as well as the council of bishops in the Land of Papua to immediately form an independent team and conduct a thorough investigation over the alleged involvement of the Merauke Archdiocese Catholic Church hierarchy in the PSN circle.

​The project was assessed to have tangibly triggered the occurrence of ethnocide, to genocide practices that rob the life rights as well as the customary land of the community.

​As a reinforcement, they declared an urgent need for Papuan Catholic faithful for the presence of a spiritual leader figure who comes from Indigenous Papuans (OAP) to lead three ecclesiastical regions, including the Archdiocese of Merauke, the Diocese of Agats-Asmat, and the Diocese of Manokwari-Sorong. ***