Ritapiret: Fr Prior, theologian known throughout Asia, dies
With more than 140 articles and scores of edited books to his credit, the member of the Society of the Divine Word passed away last Saturday. British-born, he arrived in the eastern region of Indonesia in 1973.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Indonesian Catholics are mourning the death of Fr John Mansford Prior, one of the most important theologians in the Asia-Pacific region. A member of the Society of the Divine Word, he passed away on Saturday at the age of 76.
Fr Prior taught at the High School of Philosophy and Theology in Ritapiret, Diocese of Maumere, East Nura Tenggara province.
During his lifetime, he published 145 articles, 79 chapters in an anthology and edited 47 books, in Indonesian and English.
The British-born Prior graduated from Cambridge, earning a PhD in intercultural theology at the University of Birmingham. He arrived in Indonesia in 1973, a year after he was ordained a priest.
“Father Prior is indeed a genuine missionary priest who dedicated his life and his professional carrier as a theologian in Flores, the place where he was first assigned to carry out his pastoral mission,” Card Ignatius Suharyo told AsiaNews in 2014.
At Ritapiret, he set up a postgraduate programme in theology and founded the Centrum Church in Maumere and the Wolofeo Parish.
From 1993 to 2008 he was a consultor for the Pontifical Council for Culture, set up by Pope John Paul II in 1982. The pontiff chose him as a personal advisor on cultural issues.
He sat on the editorial board of Asian Horizons (Bangalore, India) from 2014 to 2022, as well as that of Asian Christian Studies (Chennai, India) from 2016 to 2022.
He lectured at the University of Melbourne (1997-2009), the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago (1998), Monash University (2007-2009), the Melbourne University of Divinity (2011-2022) and the East Asia Pastoral Institute in Manila (2020-2022).
A former student told AsiaNews that Fr Prior played a key role in developing theological studies in Ritapiret.
Born on 14 October 1946 in Ipswich, United Kingdom, he was the fifth child of Vincent Thomas Prior and Kathleen Mary Mansford.
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