By Fr. Mario Yamanouchi, SDB

Yokohama, Japan, 1 January 2016 - In the Salesian parish of Hamamatsu (Yokohama diocese, Eastern zone) the last Eucharist of 2015 in Japanese was celebrated by the Rector – Parish priest Fr. Ángel Yamanouchi. He invited all participants of this Eucharist to give thanks for all motions of God’s grace in their lives during past year.

Before the final blessing Fr. Mario shared his recent experience of the Eucharist during the opening of the Year of Mercy on December 8 in the St Peter’s Plaza in the Vatican. Some photos and souvenirs from Rome were exposed near the ‘Holy Door’ of Hamamatsu Parish Church.

Then followed Eucharist for the Portuguese speaking community presided by Fr. Provincial and concelebrated by Fr. Evaristo Higa, Brasilian-Nikkei (Japanese), who is working already 20 years among the Brasilian workers community in Yokohama diocese.

The New Year celebrations continued until 2:00 AM with some 150 participants with colorful family games, bingo, traditional Christmas music and meals. At the end the cleaning time ended at 2:30 AM. On the 1st of January the first 2016 parish Eucharist in Japanese started at 10 AM and in Portuguese Eucharist at 8 PM.

NB: Hamamatsu inter-cultural Salesian parish with a pastoral-cultural center became since 2005 one of the new frontiers of Japan province with a special attention to the migrant non-Japanese Catholic community. The blending of Portuguese (Brasilian), Spanish, English, Filipino or Vietnamese speaking faithful together with the local Japanese community is a faithful mirror of the greater Japanese Church picture. In our parish as well in Yokohama diocese the majority of Catholics are non-Japanese with a large variety of different migrant communities.

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