Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo, Archbishop of Jakarta, Military Ordinary for Indonesia, the third Cardinal in the history of the Indonesian Church, was born on 9 July 1950 in Sedayu, Archdiocese of Semarang, in the heart of the island of Java, in one of the four regencies, that of Bantul, of the region of Yogyakarta, about 500 kilometres from the capital.  The seventh of ten children, he grew up in a large family with many vocations: one brother is a monk and two sisters are nuns.  At the age of 11 he entered the minor seminary of Mertoyudan, where he graduated in 1968; he then moved to Yogyakarta to continue his studies in philosophy and theology, which he completed in Rome at the Pontifical Urban University, where he received his licentiate and doctorate in 1979 and 1981 respectively.

On 26 January 1976 he was ordained a priest by Cardinal Darmojuwono in the chapel of the major seminary in Yogyakarta, where he returned immediately after completing his studies as a formator.  He served in this capacity until 1997, during which time he was also professor of catechetics at the local Faculty of Philosophy (from 1981 to 1991), head of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at Sanata Dharma Jesuit University (from 1983 to 1993) and Dean of the Faculty of Theology (from 1993 to 1997).  During this period, as a priest, he guided and accompanied the sufferings of a population oppressed by the dictatorship.

He was appointed Archbishop of Semarang by John Paul II on 21 April 1997, and received episcopal consecration from Cardinal Daarmatmadja on 22 August 1997.  He chose the motto Serviens Domino cum omni humilitate (“Serve the Lord with all humility”), taken from the Acts of the Apostles (20:19).

For three years, until 2000, he directed the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference (KWI), of which he was Secretary General from 2000 to 2006.  In 2006 he was appointed by Benedict XVI as Military Ordinary for Indonesia and also became Vice President of the Bishops’ Conference until 2012.

On 25 July 2009 he was appointed Coadjutor of Cardinal Darmaatmadja, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Jakarta. He then inherited Cardinal Darmaatmadja’s pastoral legacy by succession on 28 June 2010.

He has served as president of the Bishops’ Conference since 2012, and has been re-elected for three terms, the last of which (until 2021) he was elected in derogation of the regulation that allows only two consecutive terms.

He has participated in various assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.  In 1998 he participated in the First Special Assembly for Asia convoked by John Paul II; in 2008 and 2012 in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Ordinary General Assemblies convoked by Benedict XVI on the theme of the Word of God and the New Evangelisation.  In 2014 - the year in which he was also appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples - and in 2015 he participated in the Third Extraordinary and Fourteenth Ordinary Assemblies, both convoked by Pope Francis on the theme of the Family.

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of 5 October 2019, and was assigned the titular church Spirito Santo alla Ferratella.

Member of:

• Dicasteries: for Evangelisation, Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches; for Interreligious Dialogue.