Jesuit Father Karl-Edmund Prier (left), was a pioneer of church music inculturation in Indonesia and Ignas Kleden was a renowned sociologist (Photo supplied)
By UCA News reporter
Jan 25 2024
INDONESIA – Indonesian Catholics are mourning the death of a German missionary priest and a native layman hailed for their remarkable contributions to the church and society.
Jesuit Father Karl-Edmund Prier, a pioneer of church music inculturation, died in Yogyakarta city in the south-central part of Java Island on Jan 21 at the age of 86.
Ignas Kleden, a renowned sociologist, died in Jakarta on Jan 22 aged 75.
Father Prier died from old age illness, the Indonesian Jesuits said in a statement.
The missionary pioneered the inculturation of church music by using Indonesian culture through the Liturgical Music Center, an institution he founded in 1971 with Paul Widyawan, a native composer.
In 1980, he published Madah Bakti, a church hymnal with liturgical songs using regional musical styles, such as Javanese, Batak, and Flores.
He served as the Chair of the Liturgical Music Section of the Bishops’ Liturgical Commission and taught Church music at St Paul Major Seminary in Kentungan, Yogyakarta.
In May last year, the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta, where he taught for 33 years from 1971-2004, awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions to music.
His efforts for inculturation of music in the church were inspired by the Liturgical Constitution of the Second Vatican Council no 119 so that regional music in Indonesia “gets the respect it deserves and its proper place” in the church liturgy, the priest said after receiving the accolade.
The priest arrived in Indonesia in 1964 to serve as a missionary.
On Feb 11, 2018, Prier along with three Catholics was seriously wounded when a sword-wielding extremist man named Suliyono attacked them during a Mass at St Mary’s Lidwina Church in Yogyakarta. The priest later forgave his attacker.
Holy Cross Father Riston Situmorang, executive secretary of the Liturgical Commission of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, said Father Prier’s death “is a sorrow for the entire Indonesian Church,” because his legacy for church liturgical music is very valuable.
He hoped that Indonesian Catholics would continue “to sing regional songs that are suitable to be sung in the liturgy.”
Sociologist Kleden was born in the eastern part of Catholic-majority Flores Island and studied in a minor and major seminary.
He was known for his regular writing on social and cultural issues for Kompas, the country’s leading newspaper, and other magazines, such as Tempo.
Kleden is a former member of the Social Communications Commission of the Indonesian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. In 1998, Pope John Paul II appointed him an observer to the Asian Church Synod held in Rome.
Father Otto Gusti Madung, rector of the Ledalero Institute for Philosophy and Creative Technology in Flores said: “Kleden was a scholar who not only advanced science and social thought in Indonesia through essays and sharp cultural criticism, but also brought deep philosophical nuances to his sociological studies.”
“His philosophy is not abstract in the air but is always in dialogue with social reality. More than that, Ignas’ academic approach was always in solidarity with those who suffer the most, making him a prophetic academic,” he said.
“Kleden will continue to be remembered as a figure who made a major contribution to the development of science and culture in Indonesia,” he added.
Kleden earned a Master of Arts degree in philosophy from the Hochschule fuer Philosophie Germany in 1982 and a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Bielefeld, Germany in 1995.
In 2003, he received the Achmad Bakrie Award as he was credited for pushing social thought in Indonesia to a higher and sharper level through his essays and cultural criticism. – UCA News
