Discotheque and

Discotheque and
place of worship

From Kompas

When attending Mass on the eve of Good Friday at the Mary
Queen of Angels Catholic Church on Jl. Raya Cipanas, near the
Presidential Palace, on March 30 at 8 p.m., I happened to be
sitting in the front pew of the church as the other pews were
fully occupied.

As the congregation was concentrating on the ceremony of
illumination, where all the lights in the church are switched
off, the silent atmosphere was disrupted by the continuous sound
of music coming from the right wing of the multipurpose hall in
the church compound. Then when passages from the Bible were read,
the loud voice of a man singing karaoke could be heard.

When the Mass was finished, out of curiosity, I asked a
parking attendant in front of the church about the noise. A local
resident, he told me that the voice and the music came from the
Musro discotheque in the Prameswari hotel, next to the church.
The church and the hotel are separated only by a four-meter alley
leading to a densely populated neighborhood.

Right in front of the entrance to the church are sidewalk
vendors selling fried rice, noodles and cigarettes, leaving no
room for pedestrians. The place is allegedly used by men to pick
up prostitutes. If this is the case, the local administration
(the regent of Cianjur) must review or revise the permit issued
to the discotheque, as it is clearly located beside a church. No
one, regardless of their religion, would be willing to see their
house of worship used for indecent activities.

J.ISWAHYUDI

Jakarta