Santa Maria de Fatima Church: Glodok, Jakarta

I have this passion. It is visiting places of worship no matter the religion. Each place has its own magic, charisma if you like, and each place has many unique stories to tell. Although my preference is for Mosques, churches can be just as interesting.

Located in West Jakarta’s Chinatown, Glodok, is the Santa Maria de Fatima Catholic Church. An area inhabited mostly by Chinese descendants, the Catholic church tries to blend in with the local culture without losing the essence of its religion. And holds regular weekly masses in Chinese.

If you are unfamiliar with the church then you could have easily walked past it as the three-century old building resembles a Chinese temple more so than a Christian place of worship.

Standing on each side of its veranda, two lion statues lead the way inside to the altar and figures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Instead of bell towers, the church building is accentuated with a curved roof, that typical of Chinese architecture. Recent ownership of the church dated back to 1953, when a group of Catholic priests bought the building from then-community leader Lieutenant der Chineezen Tjioe Bok Liem.

The priests needed a place to start serving the local community and bought part of the one-hectare housing complex from the Tjioe family. The complex proved ideal as it was mainly surrounded by settlements and stood just several hundred meters from two Chinese temples.

The building was barely altered to meet with standards of Western Catholic churches and services were even delivered in Mandarin to make it easier for locals to pray.

Aside from the Santa Maria de Fatima church, which adopted aspects of Chinese culture, there is also the Poh Sarang church in East Java, which embraced traces of Hinduism in Javanese culture.