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)