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View all search resultsChristmas 2025 message: Saving the nation, starting from the dinner table
The Christmas 2025 theme as declared by the PGI and the KWI urges reflection on the state of Indonesian families and how "saving" them is inherently linked to the republic's future.
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Pope Francis gestures in greeting on the main balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica on Dec. 25, 2024, following his Urbi et Orbi message as part of the Christmas Day celebrations in the Vatican. (AFP/Alberto Pizzoli)
T
he narrative of Christmas is often shrouded in the aesthetics of serenity: silent nights, glowing stars and peaceful manger scenes. However, a closer look at the biblical account of the Holy Family in Nazareth reveals a story of profound vulnerability.
Joseph and Mary were not a couple living in suburban comfort; they were a family navigating the fringes of society, facing political persecution, forced migration to Egypt and the social stigma of an unconventional pregnancy. Yet the Holy Family survived, not through material wealth but through radical internal solidarity and a commitment to a higher moral calling.
As the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) and the Bishops' Conference of Indonesia (KWI) announce the theme of Christmas 2025, “God is Present to Save the Family” (Matthew 1:21-24), we find ourselves at a critical juncture. This theme is not merely a domestic religious sentiment; it is a sociopolitical manifesto.
In the Indonesian context, where the fabric of society is being tugged by polarization, economic disparity and moral erosion, the family emerges not just as a demographic unit but also as the final frontier of national resilience.
To understand why the family needs “saving”, one must examine the “polycrisis” currently hollowing out Indonesian households.
Data from the Supreme Court and Statistics Indonesia (BPS) show a troubling upward trend in divorce rates over the last decade. While legal shifts play a role, the underlying causes are increasingly systemic. We are witnessing the devastating impact of the “digital underworld”, the meteoric rise of online gambling and predatory lending, which has decimated the financial and psychological stability of lower- to middle-class families.
When a father loses his livelihood to a gambling app or a mother is hounded by aggressive debt collectors, the home ceases to be a sanctuary. It becomes a site of trauma.
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