Nagasaki Martyrs to Draw Record Crowd - Beatification Set for Next November

Zenit News Agency ^ | December 12, 2007 | Marta Lago

[NYer]

Japanese bishops in Rome for their five-yearly visit to the Pope said they are already preparing for the beatification of 188 martyrs from Nagasaki next year, an event expected to be the largest-ever gathering of Japanese faithful.

Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki visited Benedict XVI on Monday and later spoke with L'Osservatore Romano about preparations under way for the Nov. 24, 2008, beatification ceremony.

This June 1, the Pope approved the beatification of Jesuit Father Pietro Kibe Kasui, and 187 of his companions murdered between 1603 and 1639. Of the 188 martyrs, four were religious.

"All the others were laity, and among them many women and children," the archbishop explained. "Among the murdered believers some belonged to the samurai," so "they knew how to handle weapons and could have defended themselves," but "they chose to die for Christ."

Archbishop Takami said the first missionaries arrived to southern Japan in 1549 with St. Francis Xavier. "The beginnings were very encouraging and had many conversions," but "the situation rapidly deteriorated," he added.

"From 1603 until 1639, persecutions increased eventually reaching the expulsion of all missionaries and the assassination of those who professed faith in Christ," the 61-year-old prelate continued. "In addition, the entire archipelago was closed to foreigners with two exceptions: Dutch and Chinese merchants, who were housed in the port regions of Nagasaki under direct control of the central power."

Archbishop Takami said he is praying and hoping that the beatifications will strengthen the faith among Catholics in Japan. "The prevalent culture pushes the new generations toward consumerism and hedonism," he explained. "It is necessary to multiply our efforts to transmit the Gospel teachings."

[AliVeritas]

Check out this version...

http://english.pauline.or.jp/history/e-history03.html

[AliVeritas]

[Nihil Obstat]

Great points

[AmericanInTokyo]

"Isn’t it funny how modern “hedonistic” consumer societies brutally work their employees for mind numbingly long hours? Meanwhile the committed Christians, not at all hedonistic or epicurian in tradition, by and large go home and have a nice dinner with the family . . . which is a very nice way to live."

DO YOU REALIZE just now what you were able to encapsulate such deep terms of TRUTH into such a succinct, short sentence?! I and others could write a book on this theory and problem here in Japan. I would very much be interested in hearing you expand on it, either here, if appropriate, or FreepMail, GF.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Can you imagine the horrendous site of a little boy, maybe 7 or eight years, affixed to a cross, struggling to live, in abject pain, on his own little cross smaller than for the adults next to him??

Wow. I am humbled.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I have seen it with my own eyes.

[AmericanInTokyo]

And YOU, t-c, make an excellent point.

[AmericanInTokyo]

With only 2% “market share” after 620 years of business development with the product line, would tend to show them as somewhat finickky and close-minded customers. Yes.

[AmericanInTokyo]

To answer your linguistic question....

"主イエスクリスト、万歳！"

("Shu Iesu Kurisuto, Banzai!")

It sounds a bit awkward, but it would work.

[Tax-chick]

Thank you. Your experiences in Japan must be fascinating.

I agree with you, Greg F. has been hitting them out of the park on several threads in the last couple of days - very thought-provoking posts. I hadn’t thought of my typical suburban life as “hedonistic,” but it’s true we’re very happy, and we have everything anyone could reasonably desire. (Except a new washing machine, and I’m getting that at the after-Christmas sales.)

My husband has a good job that pays the bills, and there’s enough time for both of us to be Scout leaders and competitive runners, and have lots of time with our children.

[Greg F]

I don’t really know if I can expand much more on the thought other than to say that my experience as a Christian has been that I have aligned myself with God (the deepest truth) when I live as he wills and I separate myself from God when I live as if there is no reality apart from my material understanding, my material desires, and the understanding and desires of the worldly around me. Christianity is a mountain, not at all symmetrical except from a distance, with strange cliffs and unexpected peaks, yet when I live with the faith that those cliffs and peaks are real I find that they are perfectly formed for the life of a man, and when I ignore them I find myself falling or walking up an unnecessarily steep grade.

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Psalm 14.

[Greg F]

Thank you for your compliment. Ping to the post above.

[reagandemocrat]

“Kakure Kirishitans” or the “Hidden Christians” survived without priests for over 200 hundred years, seven generations, and passed on “orashayo”.

They celebrated Chistmas Eve with rice and sake for the Eucharist, they venerated Mary, the Mother of God, and baptised their children. All under threat of death.

A truly amazing story.

[redgolum]

The selection of Nagasaki as the second target for the atom bomb is an odd one. The geography of the place does not lend itself to be a good target (most of the blast was reflected upward by the mountains and not outward like Hiroshima). But it was intentionally spared conventional bombardment for that reason.

There are a lot of theories, but few good answers.

[ArrogantBustard]

Nagasaki was the secondary target on 09AUG45; Kokura was the primary. It was clouded out, and they went to Nagasaki because fuel was running low.

[VOA]

There are a lot of theories, but few good answers.

For all of our home-grown atheists/agnostics and world-wide Islamicists
that gripe-and-moan that the USA is always really engaged in
some sort of "crusade" run by a bunch of fundamentalist and/or
evangelical Christian extremists...
I would point them to the dropping of the second atomic bomb.

AFAIK, the American military crossed off Kobe, because it is/was
the cultural/spiritual capital of Japan, then after working their
way down the list of some alternative targets (some obscured by
weather on the bombing day?)...
the USA smoked the city in Japan with the most significant Christian
population.

I'm not bashing the US military or drinking the Smithsonian
Atomic Bomb Revisionism Tea...but the atomic bombing of Nagasaki just
showed that in time of war, the USA is an equal-opportunity force
that will smoke any opposing force if necessary and practible.
Regardless of race, color, creed or sexual orientation.

(OK, I included "sexual orientation" to jest about today's
"zero tolerance for offense" environment")

[Zetman]

AFAIK, the American military crossed off Kobe, because it is/was the cultural/spiritual capital of Japan...

You mean Kyoto, right??

[VOA]

“You mean Kyoto, right??”

Drat, I goofed.
Thanks for catching it, maybe I won’t embarass myself again on that point.
Lord knows I’m mess up plenty of other things!

And here are the goods on my mis-recollection (even if it’s a Wiki source)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson struck Kyoto from the list because
of its cultural significance, over the objections of General Leslie
Groves, head of the Manhattan Project. According to Professor Edwin
O. Reischauer, Stimson “had known and admired Kyoto ever since his
honeymoon there several decades earlier.”