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“Pope Francis has accepted the request of Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur of Bogor, Indonesia, not to be created a cardinal at the next consistory” on December 7, 2024, informed the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni, on the evening of October 22. The request from the 62-year-old bishop, who was among the 21 names on the Pope's list announced on October 6, is said to be “motivated by his desire to grow further in his priestly life, in his service to the Church and to the people of God.”
Unusual but not unheard of
This is not the first time that a person announced as a future cardinal by the Pope has obtained authorization to turn it down before the date of the consistory. In 2022, Luc Van Looy, bishop emeritus of Ghent, Belgium, was chosen by the Pope, but subsequently obtained a dispensation to prevent victims of abuse from being “hurt” by his promotion.
Bishop Van Looy had never been convicted of sexual abuse or of covering up sexual abuse. However, the Mensenrechten in de Kerk (“Human Rights in the Church”) group had protested against the announcement of his cardinalate, accusing Bishop Van Looy of “turning a blind eye to certain abuses and covering up their perpetrators.”
As for Bishop Syukur, a similar situation could be at play.
But, an Indonesian Catholic source stressed that the appointment came as a great surprise to the national bishops' conference, of which Bishop Syukur is secretary. Syukur's decision “upsets” the hierarchies within the country's Catholic episcopate, as the name of Bishop Antonius Subianto, president of the conference, was more eagerly awaited than that of this rather discreet bishop.
As well, there is an incident that the Indonesian press revealed in 2020.
Bishop Paskalis Syukur was implicated in his handling of the case of a fake monk, Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, nicknamed “Brother Angelo.” This "Brother" was sentenced in 2022 to 14 years' imprisonment by the Indonesian justice system for the sexual assault of young boys in an orphanage he had set up in the Diocese of Bogor.
The case had in fact erupted in 2019 when three victims had lodged complaints against the fake monk. In an interview with the Indonesian magazine Tempo in August 2020, Syukur claimed to have been deceived by this impostor, who professed to belong to a fake Filipino order, the Missionaries of Charity of the Blessed Sacrament.
While denying that he had integrated the false monk into his diocese or concealed his activities, he acknowledged that he had not checked whether Brother Angelo's congregation had received Holy See approval. He also claimed to have briefly let him teach English in a school before dismissing him, and then not to have intervened when he set up his orphanage.
Surprise nominations
Both Archbishop Syukur's and Archbishop Van Looy's renunciations to the cardinalate can be explained by Pope Francis' choice not to inform the men he selects for the red hat before announcing their names publicly.
Previously, notably under Benedict XVI and John Paul II, those under consideration were surveyed, which made it possible to anticipate possible refusals.
As a result of this withdrawal, the college of cardinals will comprise only 140 electors and 114 non-electors after the consistory on December 7.
