IMAGE CREDIT

Yohanes Kwirinus Steviean, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

LINKS

Vatican bio of Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo HARDJOATMODJO:

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/documentation/cardinali_biografie/cardinali_bio_suharyohardjomatmodjo_i.html

Ignatius Suharyo HARDJOATMODJO on FIU's Cardinals Database (by Salvador Miranda):

https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios2019.htm#Hardjoatmodjo

2012 Synod of Bishops notes (via Zenit):

https://zenit.org/2012/10/17/full-text-of-tuesday-morning-interventions-at-synod-of-bishops/

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo HARDJOATMODJO on Gcatholic.org:

https://gcatholic.org/p/3272

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo HARDJOATMODJO on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bsuharyo.html

Archdiocese of Jakarta on Gcatholic.org:

https://gcatholic.org/dioceses/diocese/jaka0.htm?tab=info

Archdiocese of Jakarta on Catholic-Hierarchy.org:

https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/djaka.html

2013 Infovaticana profile of Cardinal-elect:

https://infovaticana.com/2013/12/10/10373/

2023 Time article on Nusantara:

https://time.com/6329063/indonesia-nusantara-jokowi-democratic-decline/

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TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to Popeular History, a library of Catholic knowledge and insights.

Check out the show notes for sources, further reading, and a transcript.

Today we're discussing another current Cardinal of the Catholic Church, one of the 120 or so people who will choose the next Pope when the time comes.

Ignatius Suharyo HARDJOATMODJO, who is generally addressed with the Suharyo part, was born on July 9, 1950 in Sedayu, a community right near the middle of the southern shore of the Island of Java. Home to over 150 million souls and therefore the most populated island in the world, Java hosts over half of Indonesia's population, with the remainder spread out across the other 17,000-odd islands that together make up the archipelagic nation, which was newly independent from the Dutch colonizers when Ignatius was born.

More Muslims live in Indonesia than in any other country, leaving relatively little room for any other faith. Christians Make up about 10% of the population, with Catholics in particular being about 3% of the overall total. Ignatius’ father had come from a Muslim family, being the only Catholic in the lot, while Ignatius’ mother had originally practiced Javanese folk religion with her family, though she later became Catholic.

When Ignatius’ convert parents embraced Catholicism, they ran with it, resulting in four of their ten Children entring the Church: two of his sisters became nuns; one of his brothers entered a Trappist hermitage, and of course Ignatius himself, who will be our focus today.

Ignatius’ seminary studies were done locally, first at the St. Peter Canisius Minor Seminary in Mertoyudan, then at the Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, where he got a degree in theology and philosophy in 1971.

In 1976, Ignatius Suharyo was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Semarang by Cardinal Darmojuwono, who incidentally was the first Indonesian Cardinal. My sources are pretty thin after that, but I assume he did priest stuff in Indonesia until he went off to study in Rome, which I guess still falls under the umbrella of priest stuff. in any event, he wound up with a doctorate in Biblical Studies from the Urbaniana in 1981. When he came back to Java he took on several teaching roles at various institutions in Yogyakarta, eventually becoming dean of Theology at Holy Dharma University from 1993 till 1997.

I did a double take when I saw that name, Holy Dharma. Dharma is definitely more of a Hindu and Buddhist concept. So I took a closer look, and as near as I can tell–there are some discrepancies so take this with a grain of salt– but certainly it looks like the Jesuits are involved, which makes all the sense in the world if you know the Jesuits.

Speaking of Jesuits, in 1997 when Father Suharyo's white phone rang and JPII appointed him the Archbishop of Semarang, it was the Jesuit Cardinal Darmaatmadja, Indonesia's second Cardinal, who consecrated him.

In 2006, Archbishop Suharyo got a second hat when he was made the Military Ordinary for Indonesia, a post he still holds at time of recording. Not much later, in 2009, he was made the coadjutor Archbishop of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, a city larger than New York.

The following year, his predecessor retired and Archbishop Suharyo dropped the coadjutor part of his title, and from here on out he's Archbishop of Jakarta.

There's a bit of an interesting wrinkle though, as Indonesia is actually in the process of moving its capital entirely, off the crowded island of Java–and away from polluted Jakarta–onto the roomier and healthier island of Borneo. Seriously, Borneo is about 40 times less densely populated than Java, though of course the plan is to draw about 1.9 million people to the new scene there, so that's going to put a dent in the ratio.

The new capital, Nusantara, is set to be opened on August 17th, 2024, which is, incidentally, after I'm writing this but before this gets released, so you can let me know how that went. It'll be interesting to see how the Church handles the new arrangement, I expect the new Capital will get its own Diocese in time, but the Church isn't known for turning on a dime, and even after the transition is complete, smoggy Jakarta will still be Indonesia's largest city by far.

In 2012, Archbishop Suharyo was elected President of the Episcopal Conference of Indonesia, a post which he held until 2022, and in 2014 he was made a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Archbishop Suharyo, who had been ordained by Indonesia's first cardinal and consecrated by its second, was made Indonesia’s third cardinal in October 2019, though he didn't take formal possession of his titular church until August 28th 2022, the day after that year's consistory. Something something COVID, something else something else, when in Rome.

In 2020, Cardinal Suharyo was added to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialog, which makes sense, given his placement in a country where the majority of the population is Muslim. Speaking of, the Cardinal has noted that having prayers available in the vernacular language has a special appeal to Indonesians, as the local Muslims pray in Arabic even though they don’t speak it.

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo is eligible to participate in future conclaves until he turns 80 in 2030.

Today's episode is part of Cardinal Numbers. Stay tuned to see if today's Cardinal gets selected for a deeper dive in the next round! Thank you for listening; God bless you all!