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Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was remembered, after his assassination on Friday, as a man who showed “great respect to the Catholic Church, particularly to the Holy See”.
“Though we Catholic Bishops of Japan and the late Prime Minister had great differences in opinion over several issues including nuclear disarmament, nuclear energy policy and the pacifist constitution, Mr Abe showed great respect to the Catholic Church, particularly to the Holy See as he must have understood the influence of the Holy Father on international society over the peace issue,” said Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo.
“That is the main reason why he put quite an energy to invite the Holy Father to visit Japan and he even appointed for the very first time a Catholic as the ambassador to the Holy See. While sending a number of envoys to meet the Holy Father to invite him to visit Japan, he himself also visited the Holy Father in the Vatican in 2014,” the archbishop told Crux.
The Catholic Church makes up less than 0.5 percent of the prominently Shinto and Buddhist country, with less than 500,000 members. Continue reading
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