Pope to Visit Japan
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| Pope Francis |
After visiting Thailand from November 20 - 23, it has been announced that Pope Francis will visit Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki in Japan from November 23 - 26. While in Japan, he will visit with Emperor Naruhito, Prime Minister Abe, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga. In 2014, PM Abe invited Pope Francis to visit Japan when he was at the Vatican.
In 1981, Pope John Paul II was the first Catholic Pontiff to visit Japan. Although its main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism, Japan has about 441,000 Catholics, many in Nagasaki. Nagasaki Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami has welcomed the upcoming visit of Pope Francis, saying he and others have been asking the Pope to come to Japan for years. Nagasaki's history of Christian missionaries goes back many years, including the 26 martyrs killed in 1597.
I visited many of the Nagasaki Catholic sites when I was there in 2017, and posted about the History of Christianity in Japan after my trip. I am not Catholic, but I am interested in the Pope. I don't know what the Pope's schedule will be or if there will be public appearances, but I would like to see him. I wonder what language he will use when in Japan. Obviously there will be Japanese translators. I will try to find out more about his Japanese trip.
5 comments:
That will be interesting Pamela.
Hi Pamela it will be a wonderful experience to see the pope.xx
Since you want to see him, I hope you will. I am no longer a Catholic mostly due to the way it handled pedophile priests. When my grandson (who we raised) was in Parochial school, I didn't like the attention a priest there was paying to him. We switched him to a public school. That was almost 20 years ago. Recently the Church published a list of priests in our area that had been accused of sexual abuse. That priest was on the list.
xx, Carol
Like you, I'm not Catholic but I find this Pope very intriguing and quite kind. I would love to see him myself.
The pope (Benedict then, not Francis) visited my town a few years back. He was actually speaking just a mile or two from where I lived, so I could watch him from my window with binoculars (although I was a little scared to do so as there were police people patroling the streets and looking for snipers!).
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