Jakarta (AsiaNews) - "This is a call that comes from God, an invitation to meet my new mission." These are the words of Mgr. Ignatius Suharyo Pr, Archbishop of Semarang, who on October 27 will leave the diocese to take up the post of bishop coadjutor of Jakarta. "The Holy See has given me his new position," writes the prelate in his last pastoral letter, with the "full support of the entire community of Semarang, in the end, I am happy to receive this mission."
"Life is a total gift of God ... to be shared with others," the Bishop continues. Suharyo, who has spent much of his life as a professor of theology at the prestigious faculty of Wedabhakti and the Major Seminary of Kentungan, Yogyakarta in Central Java. "The Church has called me, I must obey this divine call to serve in a different place."
The prelate (pictured) has asked the entire Catholic community of Central Java to pray for the new position he will take up in Jakarta. "I want to express my gratitude - he adds - for every prayer and every hope received [...] And it is precisely in the spirit of prayer, which I assume with confidence the new mission." Bishop Suharyo, who has completed 12 years of service in Semarang, makes his entrance into the archdiocese of the capital on 28 October, as a coadjutor (with right of succession) to Cardinal Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja SJ, the current archbishop, who turns 75 in December.
Before being called to guide the Archdiocese of Jakarta, Cardinal Darmaatmadja was archbishop of Semarang, a land that has played a leading role in the history of Catholicism in Indonesia. The archdiocese is home to the Marian shrine of Sendangsono, the country's biggest, and it was from this land that the first seeds of mission in Indonesia sprouted. Among the protagonists of evangelization is the Jesuit missionary of Dutch origin Fr. Van Lith SJ, who in 1904 baptized 171 inhabitants of the area. The priest also founded a school that has contributed to the proclamation of Catholicism in all cities of the island of Java.
Sendangsono today is known as the "Lourdes of Indonesia" and Fr. Van Lith SJ is remembered as "the Apostle of Java", with an explicit reference to St. Paul who spread Christianity in many parts of Central Asia. The Archdiocese of Semarang is still the richest in the country for religious vocations, both nuns and priests, boasts the highest number of faithful across the nation.