Indonesia's Tanjung Selor Diocese gets new Bishop

Feb 27, 2018

KALIMANTAN: Pope Francis has appointed Holy Family Father Paulinus Yan Olla as the new bishop of Tanjung Selor Diocese in North Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Carmelite Bishop Henricus Pidyarto Gunawan of Malang announced the news on Feb. 22.

The 55-year-old bishop elect currently serves as coordinator of the Commission for the Family at Malang Diocese in East Java.

He is also a professor of spiritual theology at the Malang-based Widya Sasana Philosophical and Theological School and a formator for Missionary of Holy Family (MSF) seminarians.

Born in Seom-Eban, West Timor in 1963, Father Olla later attended the minor seminary there in Belu district.

He was ordained a priest in 1992.

He moved to Rome in 2000 to study spiritual theology at the Theresianum and stayed there to serve as secretary-general of MSF from 2007-2013.

Bishop-elect Olla is known as an opinion writer in Indonesia's national media, especially for the nation's largest newspaper Kompas.

Tarsy Asmat, a seminarian attached to MSF, said that Bishop-elect Olla is a role model for him in both his religious and intellectual endeavors.

"Through the way he leads his life he shows us a true example of how to be a real monk," he said.

"One thing he always asked us is to appreciate the importance of having a broad understanding of things, not only in the fields of theology and philosophy but in other sciences," he added.

Bishop-elect Olla replaces Holy Family Bishop Yustinus Harjosusanto, Tanjung Selor's first bishop who was earlier appointed archbishop of Samarinda in 2015.

The diocese had 15 parishes served by 21 priests for 32,500 Catholics as of 2011, reports show.--Ucanews.Com