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Cardinal Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja was born in Muntilan, Semarang, Central Java province, on Dec. 20, 1934.
He was ordained a priest of the Society of Jesus on Dec. 18, 1969, and appointed Archbishop of Semarang on April 9, 1983. His episcopal ordination followed on June 19 that year. From June 1984 to Jan. 3, 2005, he also served as head of the Military Ordinariate.
Pope John Paul II named him a cardinal on Oct. 30, 1994, and he was inducted into the College of Cardinals a month later on Nov. 26 at the Vatican.
In January 1996, he was transferred to Jakarta to replace Jesuit Archbishop Leo Soekoto, who had died on Dec. 30, 1995.
Cardinal Darmaatmadja served as president of the Bishops' Conference of Indonesia 1988-1997, and again from 2003 to 2006, Pope Benedict XVI accepted the cardinal's resignation as archbishop of Jakarta on June 28, 2010.
The archbishop emeritus now lives in Girisonta, Semarang.
