Confirmation 2014
St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Moss Point
Our Lady of Victories Parish, Pascagoula
Bishop Roger Morin confirmed five young people from St. Joseph the Worker
Parish in Moss Point on Feb. 20 at Our Lady of Victories Church in Pascagoula.
Pictured, l-r, are Dameisha Jenkins, Christina Stachowski, St. Joseph the
Worker pastor Father Thomas Joseph, Bishop Morin, Cameron Alda, Madison
Hudson, and Sarah Walden.
Bishop Roger Morin confirmed young people from Our Lady of Victories Parish
in Pascagoula on Feb. 20. Pictured, back row, l-r: Cormac O’Sullivan, Cain
Martin, Hunter Godfrey, John Noblitt, Ken Dickinson, Kyle Spencer front row
left to right: Camille McKenna, Jusmine Laxa, Our Lady of Victories pastor
Father Tony Arguelles, Emma Foster, Bishop Roger Morin, Maggie Larsen,
Kelsey Hofheinz, and Cassidy Williams.
Japanese bishops say Catholicsʼ minority status challenges
faith life
By Barb Fraze
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Japanese Catholics, less
than 1 percent of the country’s population, are chal-
lenged to try to live the faith in a nonreligious society,
the nation’s bishops said.
In their published response to the Vatican survey for
the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family this
fall, the bishops said most Japanese Christians end up
marrying non-Christians, which affects how many of
them receive the sacrament of marriage, attend Mass
or baptize their children. This even affects prayer life,
they said: “Because homes where the whole family is
Catholic are few, rather than praying as a family, it is
more common to pray as individuals.”
In the context of marriages of mixed religions, the
bishops said, “we must ask what a Christian household
and family mean.”
“Generally speaking, the transmission of faith to the
next generation is difficult,” the bishops said. “Japanese
society does not support expressions of faith commit-
ment, and some young people increasingly perceive the
church as a club of the elderly.”
In a 15-page document published on the website of
the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, the bishops
said that “Christian family life is being overwhelmed by
society’s values.”
Though children may grow up in a Christian house-
hold, they said, “the values they acquire are those of so-
ciety. Made to dance to the tune of a society that empha-
sizes study for the sake of fitting in economically, and
desiring to not become social outcasts, young people
have no leeway to nurture a vocation. This is the great-
est crisis for faith that arises in homes.”
Last October, Pope Francis called for an extraordi-
nary synod on the family to be held this Oct. 5-19. In
preparation for the synod, its secretary-general, Cardi-
nal-designate Lorenzo Baldisseri, sent bishops’ confer-
ences a document that included a 39-item questionnaire
asking about the promotion and acceptance of Catholic
teachings on marriage and the family, and cultural and
social challenges to those teachings. It asks about di-
vorce, remarriage, cohabitation, same-sex unions and
contraception.
The Japanese bishops said that, because of the short
turnaround time needed to answer the survey, they
sought responses from the bishops and major superi-
ors of religious men and women. Those responses were
sent to lay and clerical experts for comment.
The bishops said most Japanese Catholics had not
heard of church teachings on the family and “are either
indifferent to or unaware of the teaching of the church”
on responsible parenthood.
Civic education teaches that sex and procreation are
separate, the bishops said, and “women desire more op-
tions than just motherhood.”
“Most Catholics in Japan have not heard of ‘Hu-
manae Vitae,’” the bishops said, referring to the 1968
papal encyclical on married love and procreation. “If
they have, they probably do not make it an important
part of their lives. Social and cultural values as well as
financial considerations are more important.”
The bishops said “there seems to not be much of a
sense of guilt regarding contraception,” and although
there are some attempts to teach natural family plan-
ning, “few people know about it.”
“For the most part, the church in Japan is not ob-
sessed with sexual matters,” the bishops said.
Several times throughout the document, the bishops
mentioned the challenges of ministering to migrants.
Although only about 440,000 Japanese are Catholics,
almost a million Catholics live in Japan.
The bishops said priestly formation needed to in-
clude learning a second language to provide pastoral
care to these migrants.
See SYNOD-JAPAN, page 15
Gulf Pine Catholic
•
February 28, 2014
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