Two laity assemblies in Kushiro and Sanjo in a row

My duty as an Apostolic Administrator of Sapporo Diocese in northern end of Japan is finally coming to the end on 14 October when Bishop-elect Katsuya will be ordained a bishop. I was appointed as the Administrator of the diocese in November 2009 so that I spent almost 4 years in both Sapporo and, my own, Niigata.  My final duty for Sapporo was to attend the laity assembly in Kushiro on 29 September.

Kushiro district is under pastoral care of Franciscan Fathers (OFM) with 9 parish communities.  More than 100 people gathered together in Kushiro Church on 29 Sunday and I gave a talk on "the Year of Faith and Great earthquake in Tohoku area."

As volunteers from all over Japan, half of them are non-Christians, continue to join the activities organised by Caritas Japan and Sendai diocese, we Catholics are deepening our own faith in the field and also through our activities, through words and deeds, I am sure, we are proclaiming Gospel message.  Of course, we do not force anyone to accept the faith nor even join our prayer in the volunteer bases. However, many of these non-Christian volunteers return to the base again and again because they feel at home with the prayerful atmosphere of our activities. Isn't it evangelization through witness?

Then today on 6 October, I joined the 25th Catholic Shibata district laity assembly in Sanjo Parish in Niigata Diocese. Around 90 people from 8 communities in the district joined the event. The district used to be a SVD pastoral district till early 70's. At present 4
diocesan priests of Niigata take care of 8 communities including Murakami, Shibata, Niitsu, Kamo, Tochio, Sanjo, Mitsuke and Muramatsu.

Most of these communities suffer from aging membership and lack of young membership. One of their parish priests, Fr. Kamata is already over 85 and is still in charge of 2 communities and 2 KGs.

Those who gathered today shared their faith experiences in small group discussion after the Mass and lunch. Of course, the theme of the event was the Year of Faith. 

Akita will join the “With Mary during the night” of the Year of Faith

Niigata diocese received an invitation through the Nuncio in Tokyo from the diocese of Rome to join the event of “With Mary during the night” on 12 October, 2013, which is a part of the entire program of the Year of Faith.

The invitation has been extended to the Marian shrines all over the world to join the Rosary recitation in the evening on 12 October and our Marian shrine in the diocese, AKITA, has been included.  More than 30 years ago, a statue of Mary shed tears for 101 times in the convent of Seitaihoshikai (Handmaids of Blessed Sacraments, the diocesan religious group) and then-Bishop of Niigata, Most Rev. Shojiro Ito issued a pastoral letter to permit private adoration and pilgrimage.  Up till today, Niigata diocese has been maintaining the same position as set by late Bishop Ito including his understanding of messages of Holy Mother. So you are free to make pilgrimage to the convent which I designated as a pilgrimage chapel for the Year of the Faith.

Because of the international time difference of 7 hours between Rome and Akita, the prayer service of Akita will begin at 11 pm on 12 October. Then at 2 am on 13 October, which is 7 pm on 12 October in Rome, international Rosary recitation will begin via satellite broadcasts.  The service in Akita will conclude with Mass at 5 am.  I will preside over the Mass and will be there in Akita through out the event.

You may refer to the link of the convent to find our more information.

Mass with Catholic community in Miyako @ Iwate pref.

On Sunday, 11 August, I made a visit to Miyako city in Iwate prefecture which had been heavily damaged by 2011 March 11 Tsunami. Fortunately, the parish buildings including the Catholic KG were not hit by Tsunami though number of members of the parish community lost quite a lot of their properties. 

I celebrated Sunday Mass with the congregation of Miyako Catholic Church where I had been baptised in 1958 and attended the KG. Volunteers from Sapporo diocese also joined the Mass.  The presence of these young volunteers from Hokkaido has been giving lively spirit to members of the parish.  Majority of the members are now quite aged.

Sapporo diocese has been operating a volunteer base in Miyako city (photo above) from very first month after the disaster and has been sending number of volunteers.  Cooperating with the local government's social welfare council, volunteers of the Catholic Church who has been operating under the title of Caritas Japan have contributed a lot to relief activities.  At present, volunteers are making regular visit to temporary housings for victims to listen to the stories of people over a cup of tea. 

After the Mass, one of my old friends took me to the town of Taro where tsunami had just destroyed everything including 10m high seawall. The local government is planning to relocate the entire township to higher land. But the process of relocation is moving very slow and people are still in anxiety with uncertain future.  Some residents already decided to leave the town and relocate themselves in other town.  Tsunami is a natural disaster but this delay of relocation plan is yet another man made disaster to destroy local communities in the area. This area in the photo used to be the center of the town with houses and shops. Behind my camera is the sea.

Cardinal Turkson in Hiroshima

Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is in Japan to join the "Ten Days for Peace" organised by Japanese Bishops' Conference.  This ten days of several activities and prayers for peace was organised by Japanese Bishops in response to the call for world peace made by Blessed John Paul II in 1981 during his visit to Hiroshima. It begins on 6 August, the memorial day of Hiroshima bombing and will end on 15 August, the day of Japanese surrender in 1945.  Also 9 August is memorial day of Nagasaki bombing.  For all these three days, government also organises its own memorial services.

Cardinal Turkson arrived in Hiroshima in the afternoon on 5 August.  First of all, he met with members of the Episcopal Commission for Social Issues to discuss about several social justice issues in Japan.  Then he proceeded to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with Archbishop Chennoth, apostolic nuncio to Japan, Bishop Maeda, bishop of Hiroshima and other Japanese bishops to join the Catholic and Anglican Prayer meeting for Peace.  Though it was raining heavy at that time, quite a number of members from both Anglican and Catholic gathered together to pray.  Of course, a shelter was provided to all.  After the prayer meeting, participants marched through the town of Hiroshima till the Catholic Cathedral and Cardinal Turkson also joined the march of almost 2 Km.

From 7pm on 5 August, memorial Mass was celebrated in the Catholic Cathedral of Hiroshima and Cardinal Turkson gave a homily.  The text of this homily in English is found in this link.

Cardinal and Nuncio also joined the government organised ceremony on 6 August morning while we gathered again in the Cathedral to attend Mass said by Bishop Maeda.

Cardinal will travel to Nagasaki to attend several inter-faith meetings and also government organised ceremony on 9 August.   

Confirmation in Yamagata

On Sunday, 21 July, in Yamagata Parish, 32 people received the sacrament of Confirmation.

It was during my pastoral visit of the parish. I believe that "32" are the highest number to be confirmed by me within one parish in Niigata diocese since I became its bishop in 2004, though I had had experience of more than 200 confirmation during one Mass as a parish priest while I was in Osonson, Ghana.  But in Japan, within one parish and not for a kind of district combined event, 32 are quite big number for a diocese with only 7,000 Catholics out of population of 4 million.  I sincerely congratulate the parish priest, Fr. Honma, ss.cc., for his pastoral zeal and effort to give good formation to members of the parish while being a priest in charge of 3 parishes at this moment.

After the visitation of the parish, I was invited for a cup of tea at the convent of the Charity Sisters of Ottawa. The house is their formation house in Japan. One of them, a novice used to work for Caritas Japan.

53 Martyrs' Feastday Celebration in Yonezawa

On Sunday, 14 July, the commemorating celebration of 53 Blessed Martyrs of Yonezawa was held in Hokusanbara, the exact place of martyrdom of Blessed Luis Amakasu and 52 companions executed in January, 1629. The Holy Eucharist was presided by myself together with all the three priests working in Yamagata district and one from Niigata Cathedral. More than 150 people joined the celebration including several pilgrims from Niigata area.  Hokusanbara is in Yonezawa city which consists of Yamagata district together with Yamagata, Shinjo, Tsuruoka, Sakata and Nagai parishes.

On 28 April, 1928, Fr.Schwientek, SVD who was in charge of mission in Yonezawa at that time found the exact site of martyrdom of 1629. It was beside a stone statute of Buddha in the peripheral of Yonezawa city, in quite a distance from the main castle of the city. In fact Fr.Schwientek volunteered to come to Yonezawa after he had read a book about history of Christian persecution in Japan and got to know about the martyrdom in Yonezawa. Thanks to Fr.Schwientek who immediately bought the site at that time.

All these 53 Blessed Martyrs are lay faithfuls. Leader of them was Blessed Luis Amakasu Uemon who was a high ranking Samurai in Uesugi household. He was baptized in Tokyo around year 1610 while his master was staying in Tokyo, which was named EDO city at that time. Upon returning to Yonezawa, he invited 2 of his sons and started his catechism class which later became quite popular among followers of him. Eventually those 2 sons were baptized. Then blessed Amakasu commissioned 2 sons to bring the good news to their family while they knew very well that the central government at that time had banned Christianity. Though the prohibition by the government and fear that they might also be executed as the 26 martyrs in Nagasaki, people continue to join the community which even reached over 3000. (Today we have less than 300 Catholics in Yonezawa) There was no priest staying with them. Probably, only once or twice a year, foreign missionary had managed to visit people in secrecy to celebrate mass. But because of good example Blessed Amakasu and others showed to people, so many joined the community. Then finally because of strong pressure from the central government, Uesugi decided to arrest leaders of Christians. On 12 January 1629, 53 were arrested and immediately executed in Hokusanbara in Yonezawa. It is said that at the moment of the execution, an officer told the crowd to kneel down since these people were not criminals but holy people. They were respected by many.

The life style of these martyrs are teaching us how we should live and how we should spread the value of gospel in modern days Japan.

These 53 Blessed Martyrs are included among 188 Blessed Martyrs of Japan led by Blessed Peter Kibe. Their feast day in 1st July.  Niigata diocese organises diocesan wide celebration occasionally but organises the Yamagata district celebration every year in Hokusanbara. (By the way, as you may see from the photo above, three Mass servers were in fact Altar lady's.  They are from Shinjo parish and are originally from Philippines and our important members of Catholic community in Niigata diocese. )

The Laity Congress of Miyagi Prefecture

The 40th Laity Congress of Miyagi Prefecture in Sendai Diocese was held in Sendai on 7 July with more than 400 participants. Sendai diocese which had been hit by 11 March 2011 earthquake and massive tsunami is consisted by 4 prefectures, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.  Cathedral is in Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture.  The diocese organises the Laity Congress annually for each of these 4 prefectures.  As for this year, the theme of the congress was " A concrete step forward as A faithful" in connection with the Year of Faith.  I was asked to give a talk during the Miyagi Congress on Caritas Japan's activities after the March 11.  The congress was held in Sendai Shirayuri Girls High School.

At the beginning of the congress, two people shared their experience of volunteer activities after the disaster. A representative from Yagiyama parish shared their activities in Watari area and their experience of visiting shelters of evacuees.  Also a leader of the one of the volunteer center, Yonekawa, also shared his own account of experience with a lot of volunteers coming from all over Japan. Bishop Hiraga of Sendai was the main celebrant of thanksgiving Mass after lunch