Catholic Church in Japan

Catholic Church in Japan
Japanese: 日本（にほん）のカトリック教会（きょうかい）
The Tabira Catholic Church, Hirado, Nagasaki
Type	National polity
Classification	Catholic
Orientation	Asian Christianity
Scripture	Bible
Theology	Catholic theology
Governance	CBCJ
Pope	Francis
President	Joseph Mitsuaki Takami
Apostolic Nuncio	Leo Boccardi
Region	Japan
Language	Ecclesiastical Latin Japanese
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Separations	Protestantism in Japan
Official website	cbcj.catholic.jp

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The Catholic Church in Japan is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the pope in Rome. In 2005, there were approximately 509,000 Catholics in Japan—just under 0.5% of the total population,^[1] and by 2014, there were around 440,000 Japanese Catholics.^[2] There are 16 dioceses, including three archdioceses,^[3] with 1589 priests and 848 parishes in the country.^[1] The bishops of the dioceses form the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, the episcopal conference of the nation. The main liturgical rites employed in Japan are those of the Roman Catholic Church.

The current apostolic nuncio (the Holy See's diplomatic ambassador and delegate to the local church) to Japan is Archbishop Leo Boccardi.^[4]

Christianity was introduced to Japan by the Jesuits, such as the Spaniard St. Francis Xavier and the Italian Alessandro Valignano. Portuguese Catholics founded the port of Nagasaki, considered at its founding to be an important Christian center in the Far East, though this distinction is now obsolete. There is a modern Japanese translation of the whole Bible by Federico Barbaro, an Italian missionary. Nowadays, many Japanese Catholics are ethnic Japanese from Brazil and Peru and naturalized Japanese Filipinos.

The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross, a personal ordinariate within the Catholic Church originally created as a means for Anglicans to enter communion with Rome while maintaining their patrimony, has also begun to form in Japan. As of 2015, it has two congregations.^[5]

History[]

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  Japanese mosaic of Madonna and Child, in the Church of the Annunciation, Nazareth (a gift from Japanese Catholics to the church)

• 

  Gravestone (second from the left), in Malacca's St. Paul's Church, of Peter Martinez consecrated as the second bishop of Japan in Goa, 1595 and arrived in Nagasaki, 1596. He left in 1597 following the deaths of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. Died en route to Goa in February 1598.^[6]

Organization[]

St. Mary's Cathedral in Tokyo

Episcopal Conference[]

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan is the Japanese episcopal conference.

Dioceses by region[]

Province of Nagasaki[]

• Archdiocese of Nagasaki
• Diocese of Fukuoka
• Diocese of Kagoshima
• Diocese of Naha
• Diocese of Oita

Province of Osaka[]

• Archdiocese of Osaka
• Diocese of Hiroshima
• Diocese of Kyoto
• Diocese of Nagoya
• Diocese of Takamatsu

Basilica of the Twenty-Six Holy Martyrs of Japan (Nagasaki)

Province of Tokyo[]

• Archdiocese of Tokyo
• Diocese of Niigata
• Diocese of Saitama
• Diocese of Sapporo
• Diocese of Sendai
• Diocese of Yokohama

See also[]

• Christianity in Japan
• List of Saints from Asia
• Kirishitan
• History of the Catholic Church in Japan
• Tarō Asō
• Martyrdom of the 26 Saints of Japan
• St. Lorenzo Ruiz
• Silence, the acclaimed historical novel by Shūsaku Endō drawn from the oral histories of the "Hidden Christian" communities (Kakure Kirishitan and Hanare Kirishitan) that survived the 17th century state suppression of the Catholic Church in Japan.
• Fr. Chohachi Nakamura, the 1st Japanese missionary to work abroad, he emigrated to Brazil in 1923 to work on behalf of the Japanese living there. His process of beatification started in 2002.
• Our Lady of Akita

References[]

External links[]

• GCatholic.org on the Catholic Church in Japan
• Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan
• Catholic churches in Japan