St. Francis Xavier, S.J., Divine Mercy And The Converts Of Yamaguchi, Japan

A portion of a letter from St. Francis Xavier, S.J.

Before their baptism the converts of Yamaguchi were greatly troubled and pained by a hateful and annoying scruple---that God did not appear to them merciful and good, because

He had never made Himself known to the Japanese before our arrival, especially if it were true that those who had not worshipped God as we preached were doomed to suffer everlasting punishment in hell. It seemed to them that He had forgotten and as it were neglected the salvation of all their ancestors, in permitting them to be deprived of the knowledge of saving truths, and thus to rush headlong on eternal death.

It was this painful thought which, more than anything else, kept them back from the religion of the true God. But by the divine mercy all their error and scruple was taken away. We began by proving to them that the divine law is the most ancient of all.

Link (here) to St. Francis Xavier:Letter from Japan, to the Society of Jesus in Europe, 1552

Photo is of the Yamaguchi's St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, it was completed in 1998. Located on a hilltop overlooking central Yamaguchi City, the striking modern design replaced an earlier church built in 1958 that mysteriously burned down in 1991. Link (here) more pictures as well.