Satya-adhi
The leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics is visiting Indonesia from September 3 to 6, meeting religious leaders at Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and holding mass for tens of thousands at a Jakarta soccer stadium (archived link).
Catholics make up less than three percent of the archipelago’s population, about eight million people, compared to the 87 percent, or 242 million, who are Muslim.
They are one of six officially recognized religions or denominations in the essentially secular country, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
After Indonesia, Francis will visit Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. This will be the longest tour of the 87-year-old pope.
Footage of Heru announcing the national day has been viewed more than two million times in similar posts on TikTok, X and short-form video platform SnackVideo.
‘Working from home’
However, there are no official sources that mention a holiday in Jakarta during the Pope’s visit on September 5 (archived link).
The only national holiday celebrated in September in Indonesia is the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad on September 16 (archived link).
The photo of Heru in social media posts actually came from an address where he made no mention of a national holiday in Jakarta marking the Pope’s visit.
A YouTube search revealed that the image was taken from a video posted on August 26 by the Indonesian presidential office channel (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparing the image shared in fake posts (left) with the image in the YouTube video of the Indonesian presidential office (right):
In the video, Heru told reporters: “We announce to the people that on September 3, 4, 5 and 6, the guest of the state, His Holiness Pope Francis, will arrive.”
At 2:03, he suggested that residents “should decide for themselves to work from home”, as Jakarta’s head of public transport warned against using the capital’s three main roads.
Heru’s statement received widespread attention in the Indonesian media (archived links here and here).
