Indonesian Father Agustinus Purnama Sastrawijaya, the new superior general of Congregation of Missionaries of the Holy Family (MSF). (Photo courtesy of Missionaries of the Holy Family)
The Missionaries of the Holy Family (MSF) elected Indonesian priest, Father Agustinus Purnama Sastrawijaya, as their new superior-general during a general chapter gathering in Italy on Sept. 23.
Father Purnama, the first Asian elected to the role, succeeds Father Edmundo Jan Michalski from Poland.
The MSF also appointed Father Yacobus Lingai Imang, provincial of MSF Kalimantan Province as general assistant, putting two Indonesians at the helm of the congregation.
Father Purnama — born in Sukoharjo, Central Java on June 1, 1955, and ordained on Jan. 6, 1983 — was made MSF provincial of Java Province in 2010 before he moved to Rome in 2013 to become vicar general there.
In 1986, he earned a doctorate in philosophy from Gregoriana University in Rome and then became a philosophy professor at Sanata Darma University in Yogyakarta.
Although he became the first Asian to become MSF superior-general, he is not the first from Java Province.
Between 1995-2007, the MSF was led by Father Win van der Weiden, who was Dutch-born, but had obtained Indonesian citizenship and belonged to Java Province.
Father Purnama is also the second priest from Indonesia elected to head a religious order this year. In July Father Paul Budi Kleden, a Flores-born priest was elected superior-general of the Divine Word Missionaries.
Father Simon Petrus Sumargo, the present provincial of MSF’s Java Province said the congregation’s transition from European to Asian leadership shows that the Church is growing and developing in Asia.
This, he said, needs to be followed by efforts to incorporate Asian cultural values into the culture of the Catholic Church which so far espouses Western ones.
"At least it becomes an important study so that the Church truly becomes a universal church both in leadership and in a spiritual-cultural heritage," he told ucanerws.com on Sept. 25.
He described Father Purnama as a friendly person with a “high fraternal spirit.”
He said the new superior-general can also speak several languages which will be very helpful in communicating with confreres.
“His willingness to learn foreign languages is a sign of openness to other cultures. It is very important because the Church and the congregation consist are multi-cultural,” he said.
The MSF is a worldwide Roman Catholic congregation of priests and brothers. Founded in 1895 in the Netherlands, the society now has over 1,000 members.
In Indonesia, the congregation has two provinces, Java and Kalimantan, which are listed as among the four provinces with the most members and still ‘fertile in priestly vocation”. The other two provinces are Poland and Madagascar, according to Father Yohanes Aristanto, the vicar of MSF Java Province.