Japan Catholic News
December 2008
CATHOLICS THROUGHOUT JAPAN JOIN BEATIFICATION
THROUGH INTERNET, PRAYER
Catholic Weekly, December 7, 2008
Catholics throughout Japan who were unable to visit Nagasaki in person
for the Nov. 24 beatification of Blessed Peter Kibe and 187 Martyrs
gathered at churches, convents and homes to watch the ceremony over
an internet simulcast.
Sapporo's Tsukisamu Church erected a screen in the sanctuary for the
broadcast. About 80 people from surrounding parishes gathered to watch,
praying along with the people assembled in Nagasaki and singing along
with their songs.
Tsukisamu Church's Fr. Kenji Morita said that, considering the distance,
those at his church were not interested in the beatification ceremony
at first, but once the screening began after Mass, everyone seemed
to be carried away in the festivities.
Those assembled in Sapporo were searching the video feed for friends
who had gone all the way to Nagasaki. They sent text messages back
to Sapporo describing the ceremony first-hand.
Tsukisamu parishioner Junkyo Konishi, 52, said, "As the priests
entered, I was impressed. I imagined the 188 beatified, after enduring
such persecution, looking down with love from heaven at everyone participating.
Japan emerging as a better place, where Masses don't have to be hidden – that
is their reward. Those who have come in will not betray us [as the
martyrs were betrayed by those who learned their whereabouts]."
The youth of the Yokohama diocese celebrated a Mass to coincide with
the beatification. At the Mass, an e-mail from Youth Beatification
Preparation Committee representative Kayo Miura of Nagasaki diocese's
Urakami Cathedral was read.
Her message said, "Though it is unfortunate that we are not all
gathered together, our hearts are surely united though we may be separated."
Miura was responding to the Yokohama youth, who had expressed on behalf
of all Japanese Catholic youth wishes for spiritual solidarity in Nagasaki.
Following the Gospel reading, those gathered in Yokohama expressed
the joy they felt in being together.
One youth, comparing such a gathering with those at schools or elsewhere,
said, "A church meeting is different."
The Mass took place as part of the annual youth gathering at Kanrei
Shirayuri Academy's Pauline House in Kanagawa prefecture from Nov.
22 to 24. This year's theme was "To Unite Hearts."
Chigasaki Church's Fr. Makoto Suzuki, head of the Yokohama Diocese
Youth Committee, said that to accomodate the youth who would be unable
to go to Nagasaki, the schedule for this year's gathering was changed
to coincide with the beatification ceremony.
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