Catholic Teachers' workshop in Sendai

Last week on Friday and Saturday, the 24th workshop for Catholic Teachers in TOHOKU area was held in SHIRAYURI High School in Sedani. All together 130 teachers from 11 Catholic Schools in the 7 prefectures which has been divided into 2 dioceses, Sendai and Niigata, attended the two-day workshop on the theme " Pass the Catholic spirit to Our Students". As the head of dioceses, Bishop Hiraga of Sendai and I participated the workshop while Bishop Mizobe of Takamatsu was invited as a main speaker on the theme.

Out of 11 schools, we have 2 of them in Niigata diocese, Seirei in Akita and Seishin in Niigata. Though the majority of the participants were from Shirayuri High, the host school, each school had sent 5 to 6 teachers including several head teachers to the workshop knowing maintaining the Catholic identity in their school is crucial factor for their future survival as Catholic schools. First and most, number of kids are decreasing in Japan drastically. Then vocation crisis in most of the religious orders resulting decreasing number of the religious presence in these Catholic schools. For instance, not only Sisters are no more teaching or working in Seishin High Shool in Niigata, even the administration of the school has been handed over to the secular corporation. I have been granting permission to the school to be called the Catholic since I am in the board and the administration had promised to maintain Catholic identity in the school including maintaining regular religion classes.

The workshop started with several open classes followed by the talk by Bishop Mizobe. I attended the Religious Music Class for Senior High 3rd grade students. The class was preparation for Hallelujah Chorus during the Christmas celebration for which entire student body of the Shirayuri participates. Photo above is from the class.

Second day was dedicated for small group discussion and closing Mass said by Bishop Hiraga while I preached a sermon. They will meet for yet another workshop in 2 years time in Hachinohe.

St.Damien de Veuster, SS.CC.

Thanks giving Mass for canonization of St.Damien de Veuster, SS.CC., was held in SAGAE, Yamagata at 10:30 am today. Fathers of the SS.CC., Society of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, are in charge of mission in Yamagata district in my diocese. St.Damien is well known to many as the leper priest of Molokai. He has been canonized on 11 October this year in Vatican.

More than 250 people came to attend the Mass. After the Mass, Fr. Donegan gave a talk on the life history of St.Damien. Also minor seminarians of Salesians from Yokohama performed a play on the life of St.Damien in Molokai. The seminarians did very well. Then members of Shinjo gave vote of thanks to everyone for their help to build their church in Shinjo. As I have mentioned this several times, there are number of Filipino mothers residing in my diocese and there are more than 100 of them in Shinjo. Together with their kids and sometimes with their husbands who are not Christians in most cases, they have been meeting in several places for Sunday Mass. With support of members of this diocese, we are trying to build their own church in Shinjo. At this moment, we are very close to reach the goal. Let us pray hard so that Almighty Father will give us more help to realise our dream. (Photo above; together with one of the members of Yamagata who gave a interesting performance. Behind us are Filipino mothers preparing for their turn)

During the party, Kawasaki DARC members gave a performance of traditional Okinawa dance and drumming. Then there were several good performances by Filipino members, both mothers and kids, from Shinjo and Yamagata, singing by members of various parishes in Yamagata and, finally to conclude, traditional Hanagasa dance by everyone.

Congratulations for members of the SS.CC. and thank you everyone to join the celebration.

I've just turned 51

November 1st is my birthday and I have just turned 51 yesterday. I have been receiving quite a number of e-mails on my birthday. Thank you so much for your kind words and prayers. I ask you to continue to remember me and my diocese, Niigata in your prayer.

Photo above is from Akita on the day of confirmation with 12 who received the sacrament and their sponsor.

There will be a Thanksgiving Mass for the Canonization of St.Damian, a missionary of Molokai and a member of the SS.CC., in Yamagata tomorrow. So I am leaving for Yamagata this afternoon. The SS.CC. (The Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) missionaries are working in Yamagata district. Congratulations for SS.CC. confreres.

Late in the fall

Within a few hours, month of October will be over and November is starting with, it seems according to the weather forecast, drastic weather change from fall to winter in Japan. Just to catch up the glimpse of fall, I have been to SADO island on Thursday and Friday. Weather was fine and sea was very calm. I had a choice of 2 and half hours Ferry boat trip or just an hour Jetfoil (very high speed ship with turbine jet engine) trip. In the Ferry boat, I would be able to move around and enjoy sea breeze but in the Jetfoil, I have to buckled down to a seat just like an airplane. To maximise my time in SADO island, I took Jetfoil this time on both ways.

The Church building of SADO which has been chosen by the local government as one of the best 100 local treasures in SADO was built in 1887 by a Paris missionary (MEP). The present parish priest is Fr.Kawasaki who has been my Vicar General and the director of the Kindergarten adjacent to the parish. Sado has been enjoying a lot of attention because of existence of TOKI, Japanese crested ibis. The bird is the original species in Japan and, unfortunately, the last wild one died a few years ago in Sado. It is almost the extinct species. However the Japanese government managed to borrow several of them from China and now trying to breed them artificially in order to bring them back to the nature. As at present, they have released several TOKIs in Sado and many of them are surviving. I could not see any of them in wild but visited the center where TOKIs are artificially bred and trained to return to the nature.

SADO has been known as an island of gold mine for many years and also as an island of exile in Japanese history. According to the history, many Christians are sent to the island during the persecution times and died here. There is a place called HYAKUNIN ZUKA (A hundred people's tomb) in middle of the island in top of a mountain where, according to the tradition, the executed Christians were buried. Very important place for us.

By the way, two meetings were held in Niigata today, Saturday. In the morning, a meeting of the Khabarovsk group met together to discuss about next year's planned youth gathering in Khabarovsk. The group will come with a concrete plan for the gathering very soon to inform our youth to join the event. I also hope to organise another visit of Khabarovsk at least once in next year other than the youth activity. The group is hoping to organise the gathering from 23 to 30 August next year.

In the afternoon, a meeting of the committee which organised the 10th National Assembly of the "KA-SHO-REN", Catholic Association of Disabled Persons of Japan held in Niigata in August was held. The representative from the central office of the association also joined today's meeting to discuss about the possibility to establish the local association of disabled Catholics in Niigata. We could not come to the conclusion today but I hope that some kind of the structure would be realised in near future in the diocese.

Confirmation in AKITA

Twelve people received the sacrament of Confirmation during last Sunday Mass in Akita parish. It was a part of my official visitation of the Akita parish, though I have visited and said Mass already in Akita in September for their 125th anniversary. Well, it is good to visit the parish on usual Sunday so that I can see the real attendance of Sunday Mass. Akita supposed to be the biggest parish in the diocese and, because of the number and history, I expect more effort of the evengelisation from the parish community though I do understand the difficult cultural and social situation in rural Akita.

The parish priest, Fr.Makoto Nagayama, SVD did very well in preparing alter boys and girls utilising his talent as a high school teacher for over the years. Among these 12, 4 were students of SEIREI (SSpS)schools; 3 students of the high school and a student of the junior college. All of them have their unique history to reach this day. It is not so usual to have so many catholic students at one time in our "Catholic Schools" in this rural area. Congratulations and I will expect all of you to be responsible members of the community in Evangelisation. (Photo above: Akita Parish church on the confirmation Sunday)

By the way, the rumor about him was really true. Last Saturday, Holy Father accepted a resignation of Cardinal Martino as the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and appointed Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson as its new president. Cardinal Turkson, 61, is from Ghana, my beloved second home country. The cardinal has been an archbishop of Cape Coast, very traditional Ghanaian see. He was appointed the archbishop in 1992 while he was still studying for his doctorate in Rome after his archbishop, famous late archbishop John Amissah died in motor accident in 1991. The late archbishop was the first Ghanaian to be elevated to the episcopacy in age of 34 in 1957 and was a strong voice against any social injustice committed by the authority. When one of his diocesan priest was arrested because of his opposition to the dictatorship of the army government, the late archbishop went to the police station and stood in front of the main entrance over night to demand his release. That is one of his famous stories. I attended his funeral Mass in Cape Coast, since I was working in Ghana at that time. During the ceremony, a fighter jet flew over the site very low and we knew that the chairman of the PNDC, the military government at that time, JJ Rawlings was flying the plane by himself to pay respect to his one of archenemies. He was really a "Big Man".

Some say that Cardinal Turkson would be a candidate for next Pope. May be. Congratulations for Cardinal.

Honjo's 50th anniversary

The Holy Family Parish in Yuri-Honjo city in Akita has celebrated its 50th anniversary of foundation on last Sunday. Yuri-Honjo city is a new city made up of 2 different cities, Yuri and Honjo. Since the Church is in the former Honjo city, we usually call the Church "Honjo Catholic Church". According to his article in the commemorative booklet prepared by the Parish, the Parish Priest, Fr.Kiyoaki Momota, SVD, wrote that 11 January, 1959 had been set as the date of the foundation since that was the day of the very first Mass in Honjo by a SVD missionary. In the same year, a kindergarten was also established in the Parish which celebrated the 50th anniversary together with the Church.

I was a main celebrant of the Thanksgiving Mass on Sunday. Fr.Ichise, the SVD provincial and Fr.Otaki, diocesan chancellor also joined the concelebration. During the Mass, 2 members of Honjo received a sacrament of confirmation. Though the Honjo community is a small one with only 10 to 20 Sunday Mass attendance, more than80 faithful, including several SSpS sisters from Akita gathered together to celebrate.

After the Mass, we moved to a nearby Hotel for a party. During the party, not only singing a popular song on their native Nagasaki with Fr.Provincial, the Parish priest mentioned quite important point on the future of the parish. He said though the Japanese population is aging and decreasing in the area, number of people coming from other countries are increasing in Akita area which includes number of Catholic faithfuls. So from now on, they have to think about the way to create a Catholic community with these members from other countries and that will be a real challenge for the future.

Photo above is a small performance planned by Mr.Morita from Niigata during the party. The second in the line is the Parish Priest.

Pilgrims

Photo above is not related to the title. It is a photo from the silver jubilee celebration of Fr.Masahiro Sato on last Monday. Fr.Sato singing with youth.

An e-mail from Fr.Tsutomu Sato, a parish priest of KAMO in Niigata and the other SATO from the photo above, brought me a good news on pilgrimage by some of the members of KAMEDA parish. According to his information, a group of 6 pilgrims from KAMEDA parish arrived yesterday at KAMO walking from NIITSU parish which is 20 km away. They left NIITSU at 9 am and arrived at KAMO at 3:30 pm. After the prayer, they went back to KAMEDA by JR train. This is a part of the pilgrimage the group has been trying to accomplish since the beatification of 188 martyrs last year November. Their plan is to cover all the parishes in Niigata area on foot whenever they have ample time. According to the information, the group will return to KAMO within next few weeks to continue their way from, for next segment, KAMO to SANJO. What a wonderful challenge they are making! Pilgrimage on foot is one of the best way to reflect one's life, to meditate and to be converted. I was thinking about the possibility to promote such pilgrimage in the diocese to commemorate the 100 anniversary of the diocese in 2012.

Another good news. Last night in the Bishop's residence, a group to plan for on-going formation of the faithful in Niigata diocese has met first time since its establishment in May. The group consist of 5 members, namely Fr.Otaki as a leader, Fr.Sakamoto, Mr.Maruyama of Shibata, Ms.Seki and Mr.Sakaguchi, both from Terao. They have been appointed to realise the third priority of the diocese which was set by myself last year based on the discussion of the Diocesan Pastoral Council. The third priority says, " In order to become a diocese with mature faithful, diocese will provide opportunity for on-going formation". They will meet once a month and will come out with a master plan by next April.