100th anniversary of Iwamizawa Catholic Church

A parish in Iwamizawa, an hour drive from Sapporo toward the north in Hokkaido, celebrated its 100th anniversary on 11 October with thanksgiving Mass and a party.  The thanksgiving Mass, which was presided over by myself, was attended by more than 100 people and several priests working around the area.

Iwamizawa used to be a key town for the rail way transportation for coal mining business in nearby Yubari coal complex.  However, all these mines have been closed down by 1990 and city of Yubari itself went  bankrupt in 2007.  Iwamizawa city was also hit by this recession in the mining business severely and still suffering.  Iwamizawa's population is around 90,000 and the Catholic community has around 100 members in the register book.  Fr. Miyabe, a diocesan priest of Sapporo, has been a parish priest since 2005 as its 18th pastor. 

The Catholic mission was established in 1909 by a French missionary and a chapel was built in 1910.  Then the mission of Iwamizawa was entrusted to Franciscans (OFM) from Germany in 1911 until 1954 when a Maryknoll missionary was appointed as its 10th pastor.  In 1973, a diocesan priest was appointed and, since then, the pastoral care of the parish has been under the diocesan priests.  The present chapel and a rectory was built in 2002.

After the Mass, we all moved to a building of the agricultural cooperative across the street for a party.  Though the parish community is small in number, they did quite well to prepare for the celebration.  Especially, I was so happy to see so many kids praying music for us.  Also a traditional street performance by a lady and a famous folk song performance by yet another lady were quite professional and wonderful.  Thank you for inviting us for such a wonderful and warm celebration.

Network Meeting in Shikotsuko

The 19th Network Meeting has been held in Shikotsuko (Lake Shikotsu) in Hokkaido from 9 to 10 October and more than 100 Catholic youths from all over Japan have gathered together in the Youth Hostel for their bi-annual meeting to exchange information on the Catholic Youth Apostolate in each diocese and deepen their friendship.  The Network Meeting itself has been planned and executed by young Catholics in Japan by themselves and assisted by the Japan Catholic Youth National Council, the officially recognized council by Bishops' Conference.  In 1998, the Bishops' Conference decided to discontinue the National Youth Committee of the Bishops'Conference and asked each of 16 dioceses in Japan to organise their own youth apostolate according to the local needs and situation.  However, Catholic Youth themselves felt needs to create their own association in national level to support each other and, thus, created the Japan Catholic Youth Council as their own organisation.  Through their discussion in the Council, they came with this bright idea of organising a network of youth apostolate in the Catholic Church in Japan and of organising bi-annual gatherings of youth in national level.  The very first meeting was held in Tokyo in 2001 and after 9 years, finally, it reached the northern end of Japan. The Bishops' Conference is supporting the youth apostolate by appointing Bishop Koriyama of Kagoshima as a bishop in charge.

For the 19th meeting, more than 20 youths from Sapporo diocese set up the organizing committee under the guidance of Fr. Morita, the diocesan youth chaplain.  The committee created wonderful 2-day program of activities and also organised themselves to prepare wonderful meals which was appreciated by participants from all over Japan including 8 priests and a Sister. Niigata diocese was represented by 4 youths.

The participants were divided into 10 groups and, on Saturday afternoon which I had participated in, sent out to look for 20 typical Hokkaido scenery which they had to take photos.  Photo above is the one of these groups taking one of these photos.  The very first item the participants from outside Hokkaido in this group mentioned was a buttered potatoes which is quite popular in Hokkaido.

The International day in Sapporo diocese celebrated

On 26 September, the Mission Sunday, the annual International Day was celebrated in Sapporo diocese.  The cathedral parish, Kita-ichijo, was the venue for the 11th International Day which was began with the Sunday Eucharist at 10:30 am presided over by me.  I could see during the Mass that there were more than 200 people attending.  One of the members of the English Mass community was the organist and there was a wonderful choir for the Mass.  Mass was said in mixture of several languages.

After the Mass, there was a festival in the KG ground where one could find good food from all over the world.  Also so many talented people in Sapporo gathered together to sing and dance.  Even there were African drumming performance and a gospel choir.  Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to enjoy with them since I had to go back to Niigata.

The 36th Justice and Peace National Assembly in Sapporo

Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace has organised their 36th national assembly from 18 to 20 September in Sapporo.  More than 300 people participated in the event which was hosted by Sapporo Diocese.  Main theme of the assembly was "realising the true co-existing society" and particular focus was given to the local issue of human rights in Hokkaido, the history with AINU, the indigenous people in Japan. 

On the first day, we had the first study session in the chapel of Anglican Church in Sapporo near Hokkaido University.  Bishop Uematsu of Hokkaido and the Anglican primate of Japan was also in attendance.  We invited several people from the AINU association of Hokkaido to give us talks on their history and culture.  Mr. Abe, the vice president of the association talked on the history and reality of discrimination against to them in Japanese society and how they had been fighting for their own rights.  Ms.Ogawa and her son gave us wonderful cultural performance.  (Photo above: Ms. Ogawa explaining about their traditional dress)

On the second day after morning Mass in Kita-Jyuichijo parish presided by Bishop Tani, the chairman of the Council, participants were divided into 10 groups, 5 for excursions and 5 for study sessions.

Then on the third day in Kita-Jyuichijo parish, 3 bishops, Bishop Matsuura of Osaka, Bishop Koda of Tokyo and myself gave half an hour presentation respectively on the issue of human rights.  I spoke on the tribal segregation and human life referring to the history of Rwanda and the political manipulation of people which should be considered as one of causes of genocide in 1994.  After the talks, closing Mass was celebrated with more than 500 people.  There were not only those who came for the Justice and Peace assembly but also many more diocesan members who joined the session with 3 bishops and Mass.  Many thanks to the local commission for Justice and Peace who had spent so much time and energy to prepare for the event together with Fr. Shinkai.

Confirmation in Hakodate

30 members of Catholic parishes in Hakodate area in Sapporo diocese have received sacrament of confirmation on 12 September in Miyamae-cho Catholic Church in Hakodate.  They were from parishes in Tobetsu, Motomachi, Yunokawa and Miyamae-cho together with their respective parish priests, Fr.Koyama of Tobetsu, Fr. Raud of Motomachi, Fr Haure of Yunokawa and Fr. Goto of Miyamae-cho who is also the dean of Hakodate district.  The chapel of Miyamae-cho, a circular and tabernacle look-alike building is a quite modern and unique construction with a lot of open space. However, when these 30 people stood in front of the alter with their patrons, no more space was left form me to walk around.   More than 300 people attended the Mass which was filled by joy and enthusiasm.

Since this was my first visit to Hakodate as the apostolic administrator of Sapporo, Fr. Goto arranged a talk by me on Saturday afternoon with parishioners.  I wanted people to know who I am so that I gave a power point presentation on my missionary days in Ghana.  After the talk, we went out to a local restaurant with more more than 20 members for a good diner of fresh fish and wonderful Sake drinks.

Khabarovsk visit

A 10-member delegation team from Niigata diocese has completed this years exchange visit to Khabarovsk on 30 August.  The visit was a part of our exchange programme between Niigata diocese and Khabarovsk Catholic Church in Irkutsk diocese, Russia.  The team was consisted of 2 priests, Fr.Machida and Fr. Sakamoto, 3 university students, 4 supporting members and myself.   We left Niigata on 25 August from Niigata airport and returned to Narita on 30 morning since there is only one flight a week between Niigata and Khabarovsk at this moment.  Main purpose of the visit was to organise exchange programme with the Youth in Khabarovsk Catholic Community.  We could manage to bring only 3 youths from Japan, mostly because of the quite high cost of the travel, but around 10 youths joined the programme from Russia side.

Under the loving guidance of 3 Rev. Sisters of SSVM, the female branch of the Argentina-based Institute of the Incarnate Word, of which the Parish priest, Fr. Marcelo belongs to, both Japanese and Russian youths enjoyed several activities together in spite of deep language barrier.  Thanks to the wonderful translation efforts made by Ms. Takahashi who used to work in Khabarovsk as a lay missionary to stand in between 2 language groups to make them able to understand each other.  After a few days of spending together, they started to try to communicate through English, signs and drawings.  They also tried to use their own tourist conversation books by pointing at the appropriate sentences in the book. 

We are also grateful to the rector of the seminary of the Orthodox Church in Khabarovsk who invited us to visit their Cathedral and seminary.  We were even allowed to climb the bell tower of the Cathedral.  Also the rector invited us to join him to visit the Orthodox Sister's convent where we were treated by wonderful dinner prepared by sisters.

I sincerely thank the Catholic community in Khabarovsk and hope that this exchange experience would continue for many more years.  I also hope that many more people from Japan would have chance to visit the Catholic community in Siberia and also have experience encounter with the Orthodox Church in Russia.  


 

Ordination of 5 SVDs in Ghana

On Saturday, 7 August, 5 young SVD missionaries from Ghana have been ordained priests in St. Charles Lwanga Catholic Church in Abeka, Accra.  I was honoured to be a presiding bishop to ordain these 5 young men.  During 4-hour long celebration under mild Sunshine of rainy season in Ghana, (from left to right in the photo above) Fr. Hans Gerber Agbenafa, Fr. Elrom Akpatsa, Fr. Francis Dolagbenu, Fr. Martin Dumas and Fr. Peter Kabutey presented themselves with their respective parents as candidates for priesthood in front of more than 70 concelebrating priests and big crowd of Catholic faithful from all over Ghana.

I was particularly happy to ordain one of them, Fr. Martin Dumas whom I had known as a small alter boy in my parish in Osonson since 23 years ago.  When I was appointed to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Osonson, Upper Krobo in June 1987 as a priest-in-charge, Fr.Dumas was a 10-year old boy whose native name is Akwetey.  A son of Mr. Kwesi Dumas, faithful Catechist of Osonson, Martin was a member of the Knights of Alter boys in Osonson.   Though the most alter boys did speak quite good English, which made me easy to communicate with them, Martin, though he was one of the youngest, was particularly good in English.  Therefore I used to call him a lot to help me.  I still remember Martin and I tried to plant a lot of trees around the mission house in Osonson.  You may see the results of the planting exercise as small forest surrounding the mission house today.

Many of the alter boys joined the seminary later from Osonson but only Martin made it through.  Though I expected many more priests from Osonson, I am not disappointed as such since many of the former alter boys are now doing well in different fields in the society.  Some are teachers, businessmen, police, government officials etc..  God has unique way to call people to be a part of his own plan.  The vocation is not only for the call to be a priest.  Each one has his or her own call by God to be somebody and as they are somebody in the society, I am happy.

Out of these 5 newly ordained, only one, Fr.Kabutey has been appointed to Ghana province.  Fr.Agbenafa is for Venezuela, Fr. Akpatsa for Philippines, and Fr. Dolagbenu is for Ecuador.  Then Fr. Martin Dumas has been appointed to Japan province.   He may join the Japan province of the Society of the Divine Word as soon as next January.