{"id":8126,"date":"2024-08-18T01:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T16:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=8126"},"modified":"2024-08-20T00:33:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T15:33:50","slug":"changing-face-of-catholic-church-in-japan-amid-nations-existential-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/changing-face-of-catholic-church-in-japan-amid-nations-existential-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Face of Catholic Church in Japan Amid Nation\u2019s Existential Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
ANALYSIS: 4 Things I Learned in 14 Days in Japan<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
by Victor Gaetan<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NAGASAKI  (INPS Japan) \u2014 At peak cherry blossom season in April, I spent 14 beautiful days exploring the Catholic Church in Japan by wing and foot, metro and bullet train. I began with Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi<\/em> at St. Mary\u2019s Cathedral in Tokyo on the eve of his ad limina<\/em> visit with Pope Francis<\/a> in Rome and ended with a prominent Shinto priest, Mitsui Shinsaku, who will attend a September peace conference<\/a> organized by the Community of Sant\u2019Egidio<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n
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\"Victor
Victor Gaetan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Statistics alone say little. Out of a population of approximately 125 million people, about 536,000<\/a> are Catholic. Another 500,000 Catholics work in Japan, sometimes for many years. Fifteen dioceses including three archdioceses (Nagasaki, Osaka, and Tokyo) embrace 850 parishes served by one seminary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delicate and unbreakable \u2026 humble and proud \u2026 Japanese culture and society balance oppositions. Among so many impressions, I distilled four realities about the Catholic Church in the Land of the Rising Sun to share: New Catholics are part of an increasingly multi-cultural society; Catholic schools magnify Church influence; Jesuits brought the faith to Japan in 1549 and still have clout; and peace is a shared agenda fusing Vatican and Japanese worldviews. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immigration Factor<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A clich\u00e9 about the Catholic Church in Japan is that it\u2019s small, and bound to get smaller, based on the country\u2019s overall demographic decline. The country\u2019s population is disappearing<\/a>: According to government data, Japan loses 2,293 people a day, clearly an existential crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tragically, Nagasaki is the world\u2019s fastest declining city<\/a>. Meanwhile, the government seems to prioritize building its military over incentives for national survival. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida more than doubled the military budget to $56 billion<\/a> while allocating $25 billion for child care<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Church is more dynamic than appears on paper. Japan is an increasingly multicultural nation and many recent arrivals are Catholic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMore and more, the Catholic Church in Tokyo is universal, meaning, in this place we meet Catholic faithful from around the world,\u201d observed Jesuit Father Antonius Firmansyah, a theology professor at Sophia University, the country\u2019s oldest Catholic university, founded in 1913. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe church next door [St. Ignatius Church] is very alive with so many countries and ethnicities. The largest number now is Vietnamese [some 520,000 Vietnamese live in Japan today]. The Catholic Church is flourishing because we are really open to working together with different cultures,\u201d said Father Firmansyah, a native Indonesian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He came to Japan in 2002 and spent his first two years studying the language, explaining, \u201cYou cannot touch the heart of Japanese people without using proper terminology.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the lively priest, who also helps lead the university\u2019s Jesuit Center, many Catholics come to Japan from around the world on employment contracts. They might not become citizens, but they often stay for many years, integrating into the nation\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apropos of immigration, Archbishop Kikuchi told me<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I met Pope Benedict for the first time, in 2007, he asked me, \u2018What is your hope in your diocese?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhat came into my mind was the existence of Filipino immigrants. They are married to Japanese farmers because farmers can\u2019t find Japanese wives  so they ook for wives among Filipinas, who are Catholic!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued, \u201cThese Catholic women reside in villages where we don\u2019t have churches. That is hopeful \u2014 wives as missionaries coming to Japan. Cardinal Tagle from the Philippines said the same thing. He encourages Filipino migrants, \u2018You are the missionaries, sent by God!\u2019 And it is true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father Firmansyah thinks the Church\u2019s historic missionary approach continues to serve the Gospel message well: \u201cSt. Francis Xavier, who brought the Church to Japan in 1549, was very fruitful. He focused on dialogue. It\u2019s a harmonizing process rather than a conquering process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I asked Filipino people where they worship, it became clear that the<\/em> Filipino church in Tokyo is St. Anselm Meguro Catholic Church, where Mass is offered in Tagalog, Indonesian, English, and Japanese. Rector Father Antonio Camacho was born in Mexico City and came to Japan in 1991 to study theology. Assistant priest, Father Martin Akwetie Dumas grew up and was ordained in Ghana in 2010. He was sent by his order, Society of the Divine Word, to Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in Kyoto, the country\u2019s beautiful ancient capital, I was initially distressed to attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier, with some 70 other believers, where the only person on the altar was an Indian nun. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur three priests are busy today,\u201d Carmelite Missionary<\/a> Sister Tesi George told me crisply after Mass. \u201cThey already consecrated the hosts,\u201d so it was a Communion service, not Mass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Influence Through Education<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a truism in mission lands that Catholic influence is magnified through the schools it runs from preschool through university. Japan is a case in point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Archbishop Kikuchi\u2019s mother taught at a Catholic kindergarten in the northern city of Miyako where, he says, \u201cThe kindergarten was more famous than the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained, \u201cIt has been the policy of the Japanese Catholic Church to utilize education as a tool of evangelization for many years and it has worked. Graduates are in government offices and corporations, so it is important that we have schools such as Sophia, which is a prestigious university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the first day of a new school semester when I visit Sophia University\u2019s handsome campus in a bustling Tokyo neighborhood. The school was Pope Pius X\u2019s idea. He gave German Jesuits the directive to start an educational institution in Japan in 1906. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although much of the campus was flattened by U.S. bombing raids during World War II, it was rebuilt afterward. Today some 14,000 students<\/a> from more than 80 countries study there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Sophia\u00a0University
Sophia University in 1932 and in 1945, showing bombing damage to the main building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church is considered part of Japanese society, especially because of the schools,\u201d observed professor Maria Lupas, an American teaching English language and literature at Sophia. She points out that the mother of Japan\u2019s current emperor, Naruhito, was educated at Catholic schools and graduated from Sacred Heart University, a Tokyo women\u2019s college. Empress Michiko reigned from 1989-2019 and was the first commoner to marry into the imperial house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another Sacred Heart graduate is Sono Ayako, a Japanese Catholic who is one of the country\u2019s most respected novelists<\/a>. Ayako wrote a historical novel Miracles<\/em><\/a>(1973) about St. Maximillian Kolbe, who founded a monastery in Nagasaki and lived there<\/a> from 1930-36. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesuit Impact <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
St. Francis Xavier, a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, planted the Church in Japan in 1549. Faith spread rapidly until the central authority began harsh persecution<\/a>. Despite an almost 300-year gap between arriving and returning, the Society of Jesus\u2019s impact remains strong to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Besides Sophia, the Society of Jesus also runs a music college in Hiroshima and four prestigious secondary schools.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The order seems to be a keeper of Church history on the archipelago. Jesuit Father Shinzo Kawamura discovered an extraordinary letter of appreciation<\/a> written to Pope Paul V in the early seventeenth century by Japanese Catholics in the north.. They were responding to a letter of encouragement sent by the Pope to the new faithful. \u201cOur history here is tenacious,\u201d Father Kawamura quietly observed in his Sophia library workspace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter is surprising, among other reasons, because Catholicism is most often associated with trading ports in the south. But as Archbishop Kikuchi explained, Catholicism spread throughout the country, although the southern region has most publicly preserved the story of \u201chidden Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father Kawamura\u2019s research benefited from \u201cVatican & Japan: The 100 Year Project,\u201d<\/a> supported by the Kadokawa Cultural Promotion Foundation. For Expo 2025 to be held next April-October in Osaka, the foundation has arranged to bring the Vatican\u2019s only Caravaggio, The Entombment of Christ<\/em>, for public display. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of approximately 150 Jesuit priests in Japan today, over half are senior citizens, many very vibrant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the most inspiring people I met was an 89-year-old priest, Jesuit Father Aldo Isamu, who first came to Japan in 1958 from Salamanca, Spain \u2014 and has lived in the country since, even adopting Japanese citizenship which made Father Isamu\u2019s ability to function easier in unexpected ways. The priest became involved in efforts to help \u201cboat people\u201d from Vietnam experiencing discrimination, which led to his first visit to Vietnam in 1990. Soon after, he organized a foundation, \u201cJapan-Vietnam,\u201d to support economic development projects in poor regions, ranging from buying bikes for rural kids to reach school to creating a \u201ccow bank\u201d for poor people to gain sustainable resources. He is planning his 37th trip in September. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father Isamu says the Church in Vietnam is thriving, in part because local priests find ways to coordinate constructively with local officials. \u201cAfter the war, 10 Jesuits were jailed. The Church was linked to the enemy. Today, there are almost 300 Jesuits in Vietnam\u201d and the country produces priests serving around the world, including in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another wise and dedicated Jesuit I met was Father Renzo De Luca, director of the Twenty-Six Martyrs\u2019 Museum and Monument<\/a> in Nagasaki. Like Father Isamu, he left his home country (Argentina), and hardly looks back, celebrating 40 years in Japan next year. Father De Luca patiently walked me through the impressive museum, documenting the story of Christianity, persecution, and \u201chidden Christians\u201d<\/a> who preserved the faith for some 250 years without priests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father De Luca also represents the \u201csmall world\u201d aspect of the Catholic Church: while in seminary at San Miguel, his rector for almost three years was Padre Jorge Bergoglio, who encouraged him<\/a> to become a missionary. Father Bergoglio sent De Luca, at a relatively young age, to Georgetown University to learn English, explaining, \u201cYou\u2019ll need it.\u201d Then, the future Pope Francis sent five<\/a> students to Japan, including Father De Luca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Pope\u2019s 2019 visit, Father De Luca served as his translator. In video of the trip<\/a>, one sees the younger priest protecting his elder from wind and rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Messages of Peace Unite Popes Across Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For a country where Catholicism is supposedly minuscule, the Church and her popes generate significant good will, especially since Pope John Paul II\u2019s visit in February 1981 as a \u201cpilgrim of peace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Paul II poured himself, spiritually and emotionally, into public addresses in Hiroshima and Nagasaki the two cities attacked by atomic weapons on Aug. 6 and 9, respectively. A contemporary account<\/a> said the saint\u2019s eyes \u201csometimes filled with tears\u201d as Hiroshima\u2019s mayor described the bombing\u2019s human horror. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He delivered an emotion-filled appeal for peace<\/a> at ground zero there, opening with a bald condemnation<\/a> of war: \u201cWar is the work of man. War is destruction of human life. War is death\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Remembering the past is committing to the future.<\/strong> To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear war. To remember Hiroshima is to commit to peace. To remember that the city\u2019s people have suffered is to renew our faith in humankind, the ability to do good, the freedom to choose what is exemplary, and the determination to turn disaster into a new beginning.\u201d<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Observed a New Yorker<\/em> writer<\/a> who was there, \u201cHe spoke in nine languages, starting and ending in Japanese, and in between speaking English, Chinese, French, and Russian \u2014 the languages of the five largest nuclear powers \u2014 to make sure that there was a sound bite for each country.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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