The Vatican announced last night that Pope Francis had accepted the renunciation of the appointment as cardinal of Msgr Paskalis Bruno Syukur, bishop of Bogor. The announcement was greeted with great astonishment in Indonesia.
Syukur was one of the 21 new cardinals who were announced on 6 October last and who will be created in the next consistory on 7 and 8 September,
‘His Excellency’s request is motivated by his desire to grow further in his priestly life, in his service to the Church and to the people of God,’ the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, wrote in a note.
Bishop Suykur, a 62-year-old friar minor, who has led the Bogor diocese since 2013 and is also secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, would become the first cardinal from Flores, the island that is considered the heart of Indonesian Catholicism.