During today's Sunday Mass, eleven people received the sacrament of Confirmation in St.Francis of Assisi Parish in ITOIGAWA in Niigata prefecture. ITOIGAWA is the southern end of the Niigata Diocese and 2 and half hours drive from Niigata. You may notice from the photo above, majority of the parishioners of ITOIGAWA are Filipino faithful. In fact most of the eleven who were confirmed today are Filipino origin, especially kids of Filipino mothers who had been married with Japanese husbands. They are hope of our diocese.
Parish priest of ITOIGAWA, Fr. Doninic, OFM, who is already 80 years old, is still strong and energetic to lead this international community. There are not only Filipino parishioners but also quite a number of Brazilian members.
By the way, the newly established diocesan committee for communication met first time yesterday in Niigata. The chairman of the committee is Fr.Raul of Aoyama parish. I have asked Mr.Kato of Aoyama to be an editor of the diocesan news paper. Mr.Kiyoshi Saito had been the editor for many years and we are grateful for his long time dedication for this important job. For the new committee, I have appointed members from all the districts of the diocese. It might be difficult for the committee members to meet often because of the geographical condition of the diocese. However, since good communication is quite crucial for evangelisation in our diocese, I hope the members to work hard so that every member of the diocese might share same information and also their contribution might enforce evangelisation of the diocese.
Today was the general election day in Japan. As it is now, LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), the leading party for many years, lost the office and the DPJ(Democratic Party of Japan) will be in charge of the government by big majority. New government is coming to the power. We have to see what will come next.
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