Police beat up and detained the protesters from a rally in front of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral Church in Merauke, South Papua province, on Jan. 25, according to eyewitnesses.
During the rally, the protesters criticized Archbishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi for backing a state-sponsored food estate project on two million hectares of land, which indigenous communities use for growing rice, said Tony Makin, head of the Merauke Legal Aid Institute.
"After being questioned for hours, the police asked them to sign a letter pledging not to carry out similar protests in the future, but they refused. They were finally released after negotiations," he told UCA News on Jan. 26.
The young protesters were physically assaulted as they staged the rally, with police dragging them away by force, he alleged.
Police declined to reveal who called them to disperse the protesters on the day.
Earlier in a joint statement, young Catholics said they were opposing Mandagi's support for the controversial government project that threatens the lives and livelihood of ethnic Malind people in Papua.
They asked Mandagi to apologize to the Malind people for being insensitive to them.
According to local sources, former President Joko Widodo initiated the project, and his successor, current President Prabowo Subianto, has started implementing it. The government says the project is part of a scheme to tackle food insecurity in the region and across Indonesia.
The young protesters also called on Pope Leo XIV to replace Mandagi with a native Papuan bishop, alleging that his policies and actions had violated the Church’s social teachings and were against Pope Francis’ environmental encyclical Laudato Si'.
They accused him of being close to the government and not serving the interests of the local communities.
When UCA News contacted Mandagi, he said, "Be careful of false news," and declined to speak further.
A coalition of rights organizations, the Papuan Law Enforcement and Human Rights Coalition, which includes Catholic groups, deplored police action against protesters.
In a statement, the coalition said the protest was an internal Catholic Church issue that did not require police intervention.
“Moreover, the protest was clearly peaceful and did not harm anyone, including the archbishop,” it added.
The coalition also questioned the legal grounds for the assault and detention of the protesters.
"We ask the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission and the Papua Representative of the National Human Rights Commission to immediately investigate the Merauke Police Chief and his staff for violating the freedom of expression of Papuan Catholics,” the coalition asked.
Gusdi Eko Fajar, a senior official with Merauke police, did not respond to UCA News' request for a comment.
Mandagi, a native of North Sulawesi, has been the bishop of the Ambiona Diocese in Maluku province from 1994 to 2020 before becoming the archbishop of Merauke in Papua, a restive region marred by conflict between the Indonesian military and Papuan rebels.
In 2021, a year after taking charge of Merauke, Mandagi signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a palm oil company, PT Tunas Sawa Erma, which is accused of destroying natural forests in Papua.
This triggered a storm of criticism from Catholics and rights activists.
Reports say the company agreed to pay a total of 2.4 billion rupiah (US$143,207) to the archdiocese as compensation for the extension of its business.
Mandagi came under further criticism after he openly backed the government’s national strategic projects, including a food estate, in September 2024.