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Requiem for Jesuit priest Danuwinata SJ to be held Saturday
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A collage of Catholic priest Danuwinata SJ's pictures during his life. With him next to his hospital bed is former Catholic priest and founder of Ciliwung Merdeka, Sandyawan Sumardi (wearing hat) and Romo Danu's nephew. (sesawi.net/Courtesy of Danuwinata's family)
T
he requiem for Catholic priest Fransiskus Xaverius Danuwinata SJ will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 27 in St. Stanislaus Church in Girisonta in Ungaran, Semarang regency, Central Java.
After the requiem, the priest, known as Romo (Father) Danu, would be laid to rest in the Ratu Damai Cemetery in the Girisonta complex, which is also home to Jesuit novices, Catholic news portal sesawi.net reported Friday.
Romo Danu died at age 84 in St. Elisabeth Hospital in Semarang at 9:40 a.m. on Friday. He was known as a modest priest with white hair, even in his younger years.
Sandyawan Sumardi, who was, before he left the order, one of Romo Danu’s fellow Jesuits, said that Romo Danu was an authentic, dignified character and a very humble person. “His instinct, intelligence and social spirituality were always palpable in his consistent personality. He was our loyal friend and inspiration in our humanity movement,” Sandyawan, the founder of riverbank community Ciliwung Merdeka in Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Romo Danu was the head of the Ciliwung Merdeka Foundation and part of the Humanity Volunteer Network.
Sandyawan said Romo Danu was the one who laid the foundation of “Indonesianization” of the Catholic Church in Indonesia, through acculturation and a social, humanist movement.
“To me, his political, humanist movement was very similar to Tan Malaka’s,” Sandyawan said, referring to a national hero with leftist leanings. “He was authentic; he was courageous."
Romo Danu finished his theology education in Austria. He was at one time the rector of the Driyarkara Philosophy and Theology School in Jakarta, the rector of Sanata Dharma University when it was the Education and Teaching Institute (IKIP) in Yogyakarta, the rector of Atma Jaya University in Jakarta and the rector of St. Ignatius Kolese in Yogyakarta.
