Catholic Migrants in Japan are a challenge and a breath of fresh air for the Church
Japan’s aging Catholic communities are "surprised" by young Filipinos and Vietnamese. Parishes celebrate Masses in various languages . For “the Catholic Church to understand how to welcome them is an important job". New bishops are a sign of the new way of “to walk with people", as Poe Francis put it.
Tokyo (AsiaNews) – Young Filipino and Vietnamese Catholics are a "breath of fresh air" and a surprising challenge for Japan’s increasingly “international” Catholic Church.
"Japanese society is getting older," said Fr Ignacio Martinez, a Mexican missionary from Guadalupe, now in the Social Affairs Department of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan.
“On the one hand, this is good because we have many people with vast experience of life. On the other hand, many people are coming from other countries, and many of them are Catholics."
"In most cases, communities are aging. Migrants are Catholic and young, who live differently. It is a great challenge, especially for small parishes in rural areas.”
“Recently,” Fr Martinez noted, “I was in a parish near Fukushima, in northern Japan. There the community had about twenty people. One day, 40 young Filipinos arrived. It was a real surprise for the Japanese."
"Now, almost all parishes have to celebrate Mass in different languages, and this requires a lot of work. I think we are becoming a kind of 'international' Church. It is not easy, and it is a great challenge for the Japanese Church."
In the diocese of Kyoto, Fr Antonio Camacho Muñoz, a missionary from Guadalupe and head of five parishes, talks about a similar experience.
"It is a breath of fresh air for the Church in Japan, because they [the migrants] are young and have strong faith. So, some Sundays we find ourselves doing the First Reading in Vietnamese, the Second in Filipino, and the Gospel in Japanese. Thus, the Church is becoming international."
Japan is a country that tends to be closed and wary of foreigners; hence, "for the Catholic Church to understand how to welcome them is an important job", noted Fr Camacho.
"Japanese bishops are aware of the situation,” Fr Martinez explained. “They are trying to change the way of thinking and being of the Catholic Church in Japan."
Changes are also happening among bishops. At the end of last year, Mgr Tarcisio Isao Yama Kikuchi became archbishop of Tokyo. "Mgr Kikuchi was a missionary in Africa, in Ghana. It is the first time that a missionary becomes archbishop of Tokyo," Fr Martinez said.
"We also have a new bishop who is not Japanese”, Mgr Wayne Francis Berndt, an American, who took office as bishop of Naha on 2 February.
"I think Pope Francis is trying to change the way to walk with people here in Japan and around the world. For me, as a Latin-American, I am very happy to see how the Church is transforming herself."
Indeed, Fr Martinez himself is a symbol of change. For three years, he has been at the service of the Bishops’ Conference, "the only one who is not Japanese.”
“We are about 60 people in the office. My 'Latin' way of doing things is surprising to people," he said, laughing.
.png)
11/08/2017 20:05
