Rev.Fr. Masahiro SATO, a diocesan priest of Niigata, celebrated his silver jubilee of ordination as a priest yesterday in Shibata parish where he has been a parish priest for past 2 years. More than 200 people gathered together to celebrate 60-year-old Father's jubilee including 13 fellow priests. I presided over the jubilee Mass and Fr.Yoshi-ike, a diocesan priest of Tokyo and a parish priest of Koenji, gave a homily. Frs.Sato and Yoshi-ike became friends when they were in Rome for higher studies number of years ago. According to Fr.Yoshi-ike, Fr.Sato was a student who had spent more time in his room studying alone rather than in class room. Whatever that means, both enjoyed living in Rome.
After the Mass, we managed to take a group photo in front of the famous chapel designed by Antonin Raymond for the first time as you can see from the above. Until recently, the road in front of the chapel was so narrow that no one can see the front face of the chapel. The city government did very good job to widen the road by shifting some houses, though not for us but for the development of the city, so that we are now able to stand in front of the chapel to take photos.
After the photo session, we moved to a hotel in near-by Tsukioka Onsen, a famous hot spring area, for celebration. Congratulations, Father Sato and many more blessed years as a priest.
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