The Pope as Evangelist

...FILLING AVOID The Pope as Evangelist \f\ Jcipan by d°nald k,rk Nagasaki The question being asked here in the wake of Pope John Paul II's visit last month is whether the Japanese Catholic Church, whose members number only 400,000 among 1 milhonChristians, will be able to build on his brief presence For that clearly seems to be the Church's intention in this nation of 116 million, and the effort that has been launched comes at a time when both foreign and native observers have been remarking upon modern Japan's "inner void Even its Imperial adventures into foreign countries, whether to pursue land or to trade, were marked by the absence of any ideology There was, to be sure, the "co-prosperity sphere" of World War II (older Japanese still call it the "Pacific War"), but that slogan hardly implied a common philosophical or spiritual bond Rather, it simply suggested that the nations being intimidated into compliance might benefit from the economic cooperation Japan would sell the manufactured products, and its Southeast Asian brethren would provide the raw materials One might have expected the situation to be different in the caseof Japan's relationship with China in the 1920s and '30s Yetthere, too, the object quite blatantly was economic and military conquest, barely sugarcoated with distinctly routine cant about the glories of the Emperor (Hirohito, now in the 56th year of his reign, was not stripped of his status as a deity until the American occupation ) With Japanese exports now arousing nearly as much rage in some quarters abroad as Japanese soldiers did agener-ation or two ago, the lack of a national contribution to civilization has become almost an embarrassment among Japanese intellectuals "Nobody will remember Japan for anything," lamented a university student of my acquaintance "We can only sell our manufactured products " Indeed, concepts such as democracy and communism, like the great religions, all emanate from elsewhere Japan borrowed its parliamentary system from Britain in the late 19th century following the rise of the munificent Emperor Meiji, who opened the nation to foreign technological developments after more than 2,000 vears of self-imposed isolation The features of American-style demociacy were added at the behest of General Douglas MacAr-thur (Somewhat ironically, the initials "GHQ," for General Headquarters, the center of the occupation, are now a standard term in Japanese ) As for religion, Buddhism arrived in the ninth century from China and Korea and was implanted upon Shintoism as surely as Western culture began to be grafted onto Japan over 100 years ago Moreover, the Japanese continue to find the task of producing their own Donald Kirk regularly reports for The New Leader on Japanese affairs spiritual or political notions considerably more difficult than assimilating foreign systems whilechurmngout tangible products For all the concern one hears expressed today about this phenomenon, there is no sign of a body of beliefs germinating indigenous to the country That is why the four-day stop the Pope made in Japan, starting February 23, was not only the final but possibly the most significant phase of his initial Asian tour It had been one thing for hundreds of thousands of Filipinos to surge around him everywhere he went on the opening leg of his Asian trip, since they are already converted (85 per cent of the inhabitants of the Philippines are Catholics) It was quite another to see John Paul II profoundly impress the citizens of this dnving-ly materialistic society, virtually all of whom seem to worship money with the same passionate intensity their forebears exhibited in uniting the nation militarily The Pope's reception appeared to confirm the feeling of Japan's Catholic leaders that the country is ready for a spiritual rebirth, just as it was when the first Christian missionary, Francis Xa-vier, arrived down the coast from this historic southern port town in 1549 Then, of course, the missionaries had appealed on two levels to the ruling datmvo with promises of trade and wealth, and to the impoverished, downtrodden peasant farmers and fishermen with hope for relief from the suftenng imposed by their feudalists rulers Now, upon reaching Nagasaki the Pon-tiff sought to capitalize on its heroic symbolism I n Tokyo and H iroshima, he had delivered a broad appeal in eight languages loi nuclear disarmament Somewhatto the annoyance ot this city's officials, the Pope did not reiterate the plea here, nor did he so much as set foot in the Peace Park ovei which an atomic bomb had exploded on August 9, 1945, three days alter the atom bombing ot Hno-shima Instead, he spent virtually allot a day and a hall pnoi to his depaitute lot Rome venerating the hundreds ot C In lsiian "mai (v is" executed in Nagasaki in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the shogunate outlawed Christianity in any form Although the Pope avoided overt criticism that might upset Japan's current leaders, the message was clear—that Christianity could yet fill the void existing in Japan where one might expect to find some form of ideology or national religion His every action in Nagasaki was a hearkening back, a reminder that the missionaries once had tremendous power, and that their primary purpose was winning converts There were more Catholics in Japan by the beginning of the 17th century than there are at present Some of Japan's best known figures of the period were converted to Christianity before the ruler in Osaka, Toyotomi Hideyo-shi, grew suspicious of the missionaries' intentions (possibly with good reason, in view of the Church's record as a precursor to conquest and exploitation elsewhere in Asia) Despite the Pope's deliberate effort to cloak his underlying attitude toward other religions in ecumenical language, there was a revealing parallel between the scorn displayed by the 17th-Century missionaries and his own words In the original draft of the homily he delivered at a three-hour mass in Nagasaki, he recalled the edict issued by the shogun in 1614 declaring that Japan was "a land of divine origin " Then he unsubtly disputed this rival opinion, claiming that Christians "then and now can better interpret this affirmation in the school of the Incarnate Word, through whom all things were made, who came into the world, true light born of the Father, to enlighten every man with the fullness of grace and truth " Church leaders here persuaded the Pope to delete the seemingly deprecatory lines about the Shin-toist belief in Japan's "divine origin " Thev also had him eliminate a reference to "the religious freedom granted bv the Emperor Meiji" in the next paragraph ot his prepared text There was no need, thev pointed out, to ruf tie sensitivities bv reminding the people of ironies lhc\ were tullx aware of If the Japanese adhere to any belief on a large scale, it is Sruntoism—a strange admixture of chauvinist worship of the Emperor, whose ancestry they trace 5,000 years into the haze of uncertifia-ble mythology, and a form of animism, with the divine order manifesting itself in flower and rock arrangements among other reflections of national artistry The real power of the religion, though, is difficult to gauge Japanese dutifully troop by the millions to Shinto shrines on New Year's day, and they call upon the services of Shinto priests for marriages, but they otherwise prefer to ignore the discipline of organized religion Thus the Pope and local Catholic leaders are not simply displaying arrogance or overconfidence when they express the view that the Church at this stage could pick up where it left off in the 17th century m winning converts Not the least compelling sign of the Church leaders' sophistication on this sensitive subject is that they have repeatedly said they do not really anticipate a wave of expansion to quickly result from the Pope's trip "Conversion to Catholicism is not so easy," warned Bishop Joseph Matsunaga, who was in charge of arranging the Pontiff's schedule "We don't look for such an easy thing ' Wittingly or not, however, Bishop Paul ltonaga, head of another large diocese in southern Japan, indicated the hopes of the Church in discussing the Pope's secular appeal "In his love for all Japanese, his message of peace, his respect for human rights," said the bishop, "his Holiness expressed the high expectations of all the Japanese people " The bishop appeared to signal the plans of the Church to exploit the visit when he commented that surelv the Pope had "struck a chord in the hearts of all Japanese, not onK Catholic but non-Catholic, and we should use our talent to meet his expectations " One especially good stroke ol lortune tor the future ol Catholicism in Japan was a rare snowfall that lashed the city on the dav John Paul 11 delivered his homilv to some46,000 ot thetaithtulat a mass held in a stadium only a tew luindred yards from the Peace Park The agony the communicants endured—more than 300 succumbed to the bitter cold and had to be earned out on stretchers?enabled him to congratulate everyone for having been "very courageous to have withstood all this cold," and to proclaim them "worthy of your ancestors, the martyrs " Those still standing in the stadium cheered and laughed, leaving no doubt of their deep pride in having shown their strength in the presence of the first Pope ever to visit Japan More important from the standpoint of Church leaders, the enthusiasm was downright contagious "Now everybody in Nagasaki is greeting you and saying yesterday was a historic day," said the Reverend Joseph Aguilar, a Jesuit missionary who has spent the past 23 years here, when I called the next morning "The Pope has caught the eyes and interest of everybody, and many people not connected with Christians are weeping " Whether the emotional response will last long enough to inspire conversions is, of course, another question In any case, churchmen would be pleased if the Pope's popular style managed to rid Catholicism of its often-satirized image To many Japanese it is a religion of oddly dressed monks and nuns staging amusing but incomprehensible rituals The non-Christians at least are getting a fresh look at Christianity,' said Father Aguilar, who founded a flourishing Catholic student center here 17 years ago "That is always the first step The people see the Church is not only liturgy but is concerned with urgent humanitarian matters " Might Japan suddenly take up Christianity—and Catholicism in particular—with the same fierce tenacity that it has borrowed foreign technology7 Certainly Church leaders yearn for a delayed "spiritual revolution," a successor to the scientific, industrial and material one that has transformed this society over the past century " I really believe the Church here will expand," continued Father Aguilar "The Japanese could start exporting religion the way they export Toyotas That's what we really hope " The nucleus for a Catholic revival here must inevitably be the Japanese Church itself It is steeped in a heritage of survival as a secret faith handed down by village and family heads for more than 200 years after the last priests were forced to apostasize by stamping on images of Jesus or Mary, or were executed by slow boiling, drowning in sea water and crucifixion "You must have noticed the strengthening of faith of the Japanese Catholics,' observed Bishop Itonaga "His Holiness said, Tamwith you in the faith,' and this sentiment was reflected in the minds and hearts of the laity " The Pope lost no opportunity to remind Nagasaki's Christians of their courage—and their prospects "Christians died in Nagasaki," he told a small crowd that met him atop the hill where 26 missionaries were crucified in 1597, "but the Church in Nagasaki did not die " As the wind and snow whipped across the hill, the Pope embraced eight "hidden Christians," representatives of the several thousand who maintain to this day the rituals their forebears practiced clandestinely '' We are Christians although we have different teachings," said one of them, explaining that they had resolved to wait "until the Pope comes to Japan" before formally rejoining the Catholic church "The Christian message was passed from parents to children until the Church came back into the open," John Paul II responded "Rooted in this martyrs' hill, the Church will grow and bloom " Listening to him, one could not doubt that he hoped the message would prove as persuasive as it was when the martyrs were executed after a cruel 30-day forced march from Kyoto 384 years ago...