Satya-adhi
The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics is on a visit Indonesia September 3-6, meeting with religious leaders at Southeast Asia’s largest mosque and holding mass for tens of thousands of people at a Jakarta football 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 reportedly announcing the national holiday has been viewed more than two million times in similar posts on TikTok, X and short video platform SnackVideo.
‘Working from home’
However, no official sources mention a holiday in Jakarta during the Pope’s visit, starting September 5 (archived link).
The only one public holiday In Indonesia, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad is celebrated 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 search on YouTube revealed that the image came from a video posted by the Indonesian Presidential Office channel on August 26 (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 the 2:03 pointHe suggested that residents “decide for themselves to work from home”, as Jakarta’s public transport chief warned against using the capital’s three main roads.
Heru’s statement was widespread covered in the Indonesian media (archived links) here And here).
