Cardinal Suharyo to Crux Now: Church in Asia called to ‘conversion, conversion, conversion’

The bishops of Asia are calling for renewed efforts to evangelize culture in a spirit of brotherhood, and one senior cardinal is calling for those efforts to be toward fostering a “communion of communities” in the Church.

Cardinal Ignatius Suharyo is Archbishop of Jakarta, host city to the 12th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, which took place from July 20 to 26.

The 76-year-old Suharyo, who has been Archbishop of Jakarta since 2010 and received the red hat from Pope Francis in 2019, also serves as head of Indonesia’s military archdiocese. He was the only cardinal from Indonesia to participate in the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

Suharyo told Crux Now the three most important things to emerge from the week-long gathering were, “Conversion, conversion, and conversion.”

The bishops of Asia were gathered in Jakarta to discuss Synodal Conversion and the Mission to Be Bridges and Bridge-Builders in Asia, a theme inspired by a line from the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. John: “You Will See Greater Things.”

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“To be a real communion of communities,” Suharyo said,