Darmaatmadja new Jakarta Archbishop

Darmaatmadja new Jakarta Archbishop

JAKARTA (JP): Pope John Paul II has appointed Monsignor Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja SJ the new Jakarta's archbishop replacing Mgr. Leo Soekoto who died last year.

Vatican's appointment was announced during the Easter celebrations in all Roman Catholic churches on Saturday night. Darmaatmadja will assume his new post only in June.

Darmaatmadja, Indonesia's second cardinal, is also the archbishop of Semarang, head of the presidium of the Indonesian Bishops Conference and the bishop for the Catholic congregation in the Armed Forces.

"We received news of the appointment of Darmaatmadja as new Jakarta archbishop several days ago," Father Martinus Soenarwidjaja, administrator of the Jakarta Cathedral church told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The son of devout Catholic parents, Dharmaatmadja, also known as Rijadi was born in Muntilan, Central Java, on Dec. 20, 1934.

After graduating from Muntilan's Kanisius Catholic Junior High School, he continued his studies at the Mertoyudan Minor Seminary in Magelang and then at the Institute for Novices in Girisonta, Ungaran, Central Java.

He studied philosophy at the Athenaeum Major Seminary of Poona, India, where he earned his Masters degree before studying at the Theology Institute in Kentungan, Yogyakarta. He also taught at the Mertoyudan Seminary. He was later appointed as rector of the seminary.

Darmaatmadja became a priest in 1969, and was installed as archbishop in 1983.

Indonesia has the largest Moslem population in the world. The Roman Catholic congregation Indonesia constitutes 3.6 percent of 190 million Indonesians. The other minority religions are Protestantism, Buddhism and Hinduism. (31)