austraLasia #2823
Japanese youth respond generously in current crisis
SENDAI: 19 March 2011 -- There are no Salesian communities in Sendai, in the area worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami that has cost thousands of lives in northern Japan, but there is a strong Salesian connection. Bishop Mizobe sdb was Bishop of Sendai from 2000 until 2004. On 16 March, the Japanese Bishops gathered in Sendai as a sign of their solidarity with the people. They did more - they set up an emergency centre in the city to coordinate humanitarian aid operations that are being led by Caritas Japan. It is through this agency that the Salesian presence, which is in areas beginning with Tokyo, then on towards the south of the country, are working to support the humanitarian situation. One thing that has given great consolation to the Church is the number of Japanese youth who have come forward to help, according to the Executive Director of Caritas, Fr Daisuke Narui: "Young people are continually coming to Caritas from all the dioceses to offer their availability as volunteers to bring aid to the areas most affected by the disaster. This is an important sign that gives us hope for the future".
While the Church in general in Japan is still struggling to come to terms with the disaster, the Diocese of Sendai has particular reason for concerns, obviously. There is still to be an accurate account of loss of life of Church personnel, for instance. A Canadian missionary, Fr Andre Lachapelle, of the Quebec Foreign Mission, was found dead in his car, which was swept away by the Tsunami. He had been en route to his parish in Shiogama. And names of places that were once unknown by the world at large, but are now 'household' names, like Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate, Aomori, were important local centres for the diocese. Most of them either do not exist, totally destroyed by the tsunami, or have had to be abandoned because of the nuclear disaster that followed at Fukushima.
Catholics make up 0.15% of the population of the Prefecture that is covered by Sendai Diocese (this compares to something like 0.95% for Tokyo). There are some 11,000 Catholics in the Diocese who were in 56 parishes before the earthquake and tsunami struck. It remains to be seen how many of those parishes have effectively survived.
Just as it has been difficult for Japanese people to get news of the real situation in the country (Bishop Hiraga of Sendai has said that many residents of his diocese have little knowledge of what is going on at Fukushima because communications are so poor), it has been even more difficult to get accurate accounts of the situation for Catholics in the region. Lack of information is always frustrating, especially for agencies and NGOs that wish to help.
Bishop Mizobe, incidentally, is now Bishop of Takamatsu, the second but last of the major islands, in southernmost terms, in the Japanese island chain·
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Japanese youth respond generously in current crisis
SENDAI: 19 March 2011 -- There are no Salesian communities in Sendai, in the area worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami that has cost thousands of lives in northern Japan, but there is a strong Salesian connection. Bishop Mizobe sdb was Bishop of Sendai from 2000 until 2004. On 16 March, the Japanese Bishops gathered in Sendai as a sign of their solidarity with the people. They did more - they set up an emergency centre in the city to coordinate humanitarian aid operations that are being led by Caritas Japan. It is through this agency that the Salesian presence, which is in areas beginning with Tokyo, then on towards the south of the country, are working to support the humanitarian situation. One thing that has given great consolation to the Church is the number of Japanese youth who have come forward to help, according to the Executive Director of Caritas, Fr Daisuke Narui: "Young people are continually coming to Caritas from all the dioceses to offer their availability as volunteers to bring aid to the areas most affected by the disaster. This is an important sign that gives us hope for the future".
While the Church in general in Japan is still struggling to come to terms with the disaster, the Diocese of Sendai has particular reason for concerns, obviously. There is still to be an accurate account of loss of life of Church personnel, for instance. A Canadian missionary, Fr Andre Lachapelle, of the Quebec Foreign Mission, was found dead in his car, which was swept away by the Tsunami. He had been en route to his parish in Shiogama. And names of places that were once unknown by the world at large, but are now 'household' names, like Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate, Aomori, were important local centres for the diocese. Most of them either do not exist, totally destroyed by the tsunami, or have had to be abandoned because of the nuclear disaster that followed at Fukushima.
Catholics make up 0.15% of the population of the Prefecture that is covered by Sendai Diocese (this compares to something like 0.95% for Tokyo). There are some 11,000 Catholics in the Diocese who were in 56 parishes before the earthquake and tsunami struck. It remains to be seen how many of those parishes have effectively survived.
Just as it has been difficult for Japanese people to get news of the real situation in the country (Bishop Hiraga of Sendai has said that many residents of his diocese have little knowledge of what is going on at Fukushima because communications are so poor), it has been even more difficult to get accurate accounts of the situation for Catholics in the region. Lack of information is always frustrating, especially for agencies and NGOs that wish to help.
Bishop Mizobe, incidentally, is now Bishop of Takamatsu, the second but last of the major islands, in southernmost terms, in the Japanese island chain·
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2011 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
