The seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II is a good reason to tell my dreadful experience of war – and in the end – how it led me to the Good Samaritan Sisters. On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. This brought Japan into World War II. At that time I Read more
A Japanese author, in a book about Benedict XVI, has described the Catholic Church as an “East” in a West determined to impose its values on other cultures. Hajime Konno, in his book “Benedictus PP XVI, Renovatio Europae Renovatio”, draws attention to the Western presumption that wants to impose its values on the entire world. Read more
Father George Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain to the 509th Composite Group — the atomic bomb group — blessed the aircrews and their two missions before they set out to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Seventy years ago, on August 6, 1945, the single most destructive weapon ever unleashed upon human beings and the environment – the atomic bomb – Read more
After a typhoon chased us across the main island of Japan, my family and I found ourselves marching in the rain up a long hill in the middle of Nagasaki in search of the Urakami Cathedral. With the approaching 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing here in 1945, we felt a sense of awe and Read more
Famed movie director Martin Scorsese is to make a film based on the Jesuit Catholic mission to Japan in the 17th century. The film will be based on “Silence” by Japanese author Shusako Endo. It is based on the story of Tome Ferreira (1580-1650), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, who renounced the Christian faith under torture Read more
Catholic Church’s teaching are not known in Japan and the Vatican’s Europe-centric views hamper evangelisation efforts where Catholics represent a small minority of the population. This is the response of Japan’s bishops to the Vatican survey of global Catholics’ view on family issues. In what CNS describes at as a ‘sometimes pointed’ and ‘blunt’ 15 Read more
The huge earthquake that struck northeast Japan on March 11, 2011 tested a nation and its faith. On this first anniversary we pause to remember that day, with prayer and reflection on what it means. Without warning, on a cold sunny day, an entire region was shaken by one of five most powerful earthquakes ever recorded; Read more
Catholic bishops in Japan said today they want an immediate end to nuclear power generation.
The bishops acknowledged that, if nuclear energy were to be abolished, Japan would be left with an energy deficit, and that the problem of CO2 would still need to be addressed. But they insisted that humans have a responsibility to protect “nature and all life, which are God’s creatures,” and to pass a safe environment on to future generations.
The bishops want their countrymen to change their lives fundamentally, if necessary: “The essential thing is to adapt our lifestyle, which is excessively dependent on nuclear energy; to turn that lifestyle around in its whole way of being.”
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Tonga 31-18 Japan; Tonga slew the giant. But Japan is a gentle giant and champion in terms of social justice and equality They may have lost the game but they gets the trophy for off-the-field fairness. Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand’s rankings rate Japan champion in terms of social justice and equality. While being one of Read more
The Pacific Disaster Centre is calling for nuclear monitoring to be set up across the Pacific after Japanese authorities revealed contamination could be more widespread than first thought. Japan’s Atomic Energy Agency predicts that radioactive caesium from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant will travel four thousand kilometres through the Pacific Ocean within one year and Read more