Influence And Training

Fordham University 1958

......the schools of the Jesuits can not be appreciated, without drawing attention to the important part which the confessional and the ethics of the Order, occupy in the internal police and moral training of these institutions. 

It should be remembered that these schools are avowedly catholic— that their teachers are an influential Order of the Catholic Church devoted to the maintenance and propagation of the Faith as held by that Church, and that the acknowledgment of sins, conjoined with sincere contrition, and a firm purpose of amendment, to an authorized priest, is obligatory upon all, old and young, 

who are in communion with that Church. When parents send their children to these schools, they know, or can know, that they will be subjected to the influence and training which the Catholic Church recognizes as favorable to its purposes. 

The superiority of the schools of the Jesuits, considered as schools, and apart from their ecclesiastical relations, is to be found in the fact that the director and all the subordinate teachers are selected for their several positions, after a long and careful training, under able and experienced masters, in a system of organization, instruction, and discipline, devised and matured after years of trial by many minds, and embodied in books composed by masters in the several studies. 

No thoughtful educator can study the educational policy of the Jesuits without gathering lessons of great value in determining his views as to the best methods of conducting the education of the young.

Link (here)  to  the original article in The American Journal of Education published in 1859

Jesuit Says, “Do Your Job, Which Is To Proclaim The Good News,”

Catholic life in Indonesia has become decadent as a result of the local Church’s neglect of catechism and evangelization, according to a Jesuit priest. “Catechism and evangelization have become major problems for the Catholic Church,” Jesuit Father Telephorus Krispurwana Cahyadi told 52 catechists from Jakarta archdiocese. He pointed to a growing number of divorces among young couples as a prime example. Catechists must pay serious attention to their task in teaching the Catholic faith he told the gathering organized by the diocesan commission on catechetic at the archdiocese’s hall on March 19. “Do your job, which is to proclaim the Good News,” he urged. The lecturer at the Jesuit-run Driyarkara School of Philosophy in Jakarta voiced concerned over Catholics seemingly concerning themselves over the Church’s appearance rather than the liturgy that develops a meaningful relationship with God.

Link (here) to UCAN

Belloc

Folks as diverse as Hilaire Belloc biographer A.N. Wilson and Jesuit Father James V. Schall have said that Belloc was one of the greatest essayists of the English language. If so, why is he neglected today?

Link (here)

Jesuit On Curing The Deep Wound

....it’s not enough to be spiritual-but-not-religious. Not enough to be a nice guy. We need a cure that goes as deep as the wound. We need, as St. Paul says, through the obedience of one man, to be made righteous. We need Christ. Not surprisingly, Christ turns out to be the ultimate basis for Christian conversion, for Christian fasting, Christian almsgiving, and Christian prayer. We do these practices because Christ himself went before us doing these things; He filled these practices with His own power. We read today that in the desert, Christ himself fasted, underwent trial, and overthrew Satan. It is because He did so that our own fasting can now claim a share in His victory.

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Link (here) to read Jesuit Transitional Deacon Arron Pidel's full homily.

“The Bus Trip,”

Mike Rogers, Jr., our Jesuit seminarian who’s currently studying theology at the Gregorian University in Rome, is turning 30 on March 23 of this year—a fact which makes me feel really, really old! In preparation for this big event, he decided to write 30 separate reflections on his blog—one on each of the 30 days preceding March 23. These are personal “stories of grace,” as he calls them, which recount his experience of God’s presence and love during the first 3 decades of his life. Well, the one he wrote on February 28 really hit home with me, and it ties in quite well with the Lord’s message to us today in this gospel passage we just heard from Matthew 17. The title of it was, simply, “The Bus Trip,” and it concerned his first trip to the Steubenville High School Youth Conference in Ohio. (This was back in the mid-1990s, before the days of Steubenville East at LaSallette and U.R.I. Back then, all the conferences took place on the campus of Franciscan University itself.)

Link (here) to the blog Fr. Ray's "Other" Corner

Fr. Friedrich Kronseder, S.J. , Maria Von Trapp And The Sound Of Music

The Trapp Family Singers

Maria Augusta Kutschera was born on a train enroute to Vienna just before midnight on January 26, 1905. Her anxious entrance into the world set in motion a life full of remarkable and challenging events that would be immortalized on stage and screen. Maria's mother died when she was two years old. Her father left her with an elderly cousin so that he could be free to travel. She experienced a lonely and very strict upbringing without any siblings or other children in the household. The movie strongly portrays Maria as the epitome of religious devotion in and out of convent life. 

Most people are unaware that she was raised as a socialist and atheist and became actively cynical towards all religions. Those beliefs quickly and dramatically changed by the chance meeting of a visiting Jesuit priest to Maria's college. Maria had entered a crowded church assuming she was about to enjoy a concert by Bach. Instead, a well-known priest, Father Kronseder has just begun preaching. 

Caught in the middle of a standing-room-only crowd, Maria soon found herself caught up in the words of this preacher. In Maria's words, "Now I had heard from my uncle that all of these bible stories were inventions and old legends, and that there wasn't a word of truth in them. But the way this man talked just swept me off my feet. I was completely overwhelmed by it..." When he finished his sermon and came down the pulpit stairs Maria grabbed his elbow and loudly asked, "Do you believe all this?" A meeting between the priest and Maria changed her beliefs and the course of her life

Link (here) to read the full biography.

Fr. Friedrich Kronseder, S.J. was the Spiritual Director to Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar, S.J. (here)

Jesuit Mental Health Chaplian Removed By Archbishop

Archbishop George Lucas

A Jesuit priest has been permanently removed from ministry in the Archdiocese of Omaha on an allegation that he had inappropriate contact with a student at Milwaukee's Marquette High School in the early 1980s. Father Perry Robinson, 69, taught at Marquette for 20 years before he was fired in 1988 for taking inappropriate photographs of boys and men. He was dismissed last month as associate pastor at St. Gerald Parish and barred from all ministry in the archdiocese after a Marquette alumnus, now living in California, reported the incident to Omaha Archbishop George Lucas. Omaha Chancellor Deacon Tim McNeil said church officials there appear not to have been told about the circumstances surrounding Robinson's Marquette dismissal, or that he was twice sent to a Maryland psychological treatment center, when they agreed to accept him for ministry in the 1980s. While the latest allegation remains under investigation by the Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, McNeil said Robinson will not work again in the Omaha area. "We have a zero-tolerance policy," McNeil said. The Jesuits' Milwaukee spokesman, Rory Gillespie, said the order felt the Omaha ministry was appropriate for Robinson - he first served as a mental health chaplain there - and that it would have discussed his history with the church officials in Omaha.

Link (here) to the full story at the Milwaukee Sentinal

Jesuit Says, "The Following Of Christ Is A Social Enterprise"

There are two mystical bodies, one of Christ and one of Satan. The devil, the devil is highly organized and unless the followers of Christ are correspondingly, deeply motivated, strongly organized and zealous, profoundly, heroically zealous, they are no match for the followers of the evil spirit. Which leads us to part two of our meditation. St. Ignatius calls this the Two Standards. Basic to a correct understanding of the spiritual life in every state of life is the fact that the following of Christ is a social venture. Let me repeat,

the following of Christ is a social enterprise. We must go beyond the desire for our own sanctification to cooperate with Christ in propagating His doctrine among all men throughout the world. 

Togetherness is of the essence of our faith. Equally basic is the corresponding fact that the evil spirit is active in his propagation of his doctrine and he has a doctrine among all men throughout the world. Remember the parable of the sower who sowed good seed during the day, and then sometime later weeds began to grow. Sown in the same field by an enemy. 

There are two sowers sowing their seed in the hearts and minds of men, one sower is Jesus Christ, the other is Lucifer. And let me tell you, this is not pious rhetoric or mere devotion. This is bedrock Christianity. The focus of our concentration here is to compare the method used by Christ in organizing His followers with a corresponding and competitive method of Satan in mobilizing his agents. 

Or as St. Ignatius calls them, the Two Standards are commonly associated with the Spiritual Exercises. They are really part of Divine Revelation and essential to every believer’s Christian spirituality. Not to know what I want to share with you, is to be sheer ignorant, blind, to what is going on in the world today.

Link (here) to read Fr. John Hardon, S.J. and his talk on the Two Standards

"Gregorian Reflection Group" And The Six Jesuit Members

Superior General Father Adolfo Nicolas, S.J. announced the formation of “a small commission within the general council to discuss, discern, and propose matters related to our common mission,” comprised of the three core secretaries, two general councilors and the father general. “In order to help me regularly reflect on and understand more deeply different realities concerning our mission, I have formed a group based here in Rome that I have called the "Gregorian Reflection Group" (because we meet in the Gregorian University), Fr. Nicolas also revealed.  The six members of the group are professors in different fields from the university: Frs. Giovanni Cucci, José Funes, Michael Paul Gallagher, Daniel McDonald, Theoneste Nkeramihigo, and Hans Zollner.

Link (here) to CNA

Never Ending

SNAP is asking the Jesuits to create a public registry of all priests with confirmed reports of abusing children.The request comes after a former Marquette University High School teacher was permanently removed from the ministry.The Rev. Perry Robinson, S.J. worked at MUHS in the 1980s. He was reassigned to a parish in Nebraska after an investigation involving n@de photos of students. Last month, the archbishop of Omaha removed Robinson from the ministry after receiving a new report of abuse from a former MUHS student. SNAP is also requesting that all records and evidence of sex crimes by priests be turned over to law enforcement."I think it's imperative, especially in light of (the Archdiocese of) Milwaukee going through bankruptcy right now, that Archbishop Listecki call on the Jesuit superiors in the city to be transparent and to be forthright with issues of sexual abuse," said John Pilmaier, SNAP Wisconsin's coordinator.

Link (here) to the full article WISN.com

Georgetown University Lecturer Karen Armstrong, "Islam Is A Religion Of Success..."

Sacred Heart Chapel, Georgetown

Karen Armstrong is recognized as a provocative, original thinker on the role of religion in the modern world. She earned her Master's in Literature from the University of Oxford, taught modern literature at the University of London, and taught part time at the Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism and the Training of Rabbis and Teachers.  She is the author of 20 books, some of which have been translated into forty languages, and which include: Holy War, The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World [1988]; Muhammad, A Biography of the Prophet [1991]; A History of God [1993]; Islam, A Short History [2002]; The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness [2005]; and The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions [2006].

Link (here) to the Georgetown University website.

In an interview with Bill Moyers published on March 2009 at Public Broadcasting Service site, Armstrong states that "Islam is a religion of success.… Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength." Armstrong argued that “until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur’an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religions as coming from God; and despite the Western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword”.

Link (here) to a much larger piece by the Melkite Greek Catholic Robert Spencer his famous blog is entitled Jihad Watch

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The History of St. Patrick's Day (here)

The Life of St. Patrick (here)
The Irish Jesuits (here)  
Wiki and Irish Jesuits (here)

Jesuit On Churches And Mosques In France

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres

If Muslims ask for Europe’s "empty" churches...
by Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, S.J.

In a press release published Friday, March 11, 2011, the "Banlieuses Respect" Collective asked authorities in charge of organization of the Church of France, to place at Muslims’ disposal "empty churches for Friday prayers". Hassan M. Ben Barek, a spokesman for the Collective, said the measure would "prevent Muslims from having to pray on the streets" and being "politicians’ hostages”.....On the other hand, a church that served as a mosque would have to be re-equipped for the needs of Muslim prayer. 

Many typically Christian elements would have to be removed and typically Muslim ones added. And above all these "empty churches" are not destined to remain empty, but on the contrary to be occupied as soon as possible by a Christian community or a monastic community, which is happening more and more throughout Europe. 

Now it seems unlikely that such a place, more or less once converted into a mosque, could be "repossessed" and turned back to church. It would be a great loss for the Muslim community and could lead to much bitterness and religious conflicts. 

The Christians would then be accused of being Islamophobic, revanchists, disrespectful of Muslim sensitivities, unbrotherly towards them, and so on. 

Finally, imagine for a moment the opposite. If in a Muslim country (Egypt or Algeria, for example) the indigenous Christians (in Egypt) or immigrant Christians (in Algeria) asked Muslims to give them a mosque, since they have many, or to lend them one for Sunday, or only for important celebrations: Christmas, Epiphany, the beginning of Lent, Easter, Pentecost and the Assumption, what would the reaction of Muslims be?  
Link (here) to the full and fascinating article at Asia News

What Is A Christian

“It was at Antioch that the disciples of Jesus were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26)  The early Christians were known as disciples of Jesus.  

To be a Christian then is not just to know about Jesus.  Knowledge about Jesus can be found in the Bible.  But the Bible is not a Christian.  Knowledge about Jesus an also be found in the Catechism.  

But the Catechism is not a Christian.  All the knowledge we have about Jesus can be put on a silicon chip.  But a silicon chip is not a Christian.

 

Link (here) the Jesuit Fr. K of the New Orleans Province, Fr K's blog Disciples of Jesus

Unrepentant Jesuit

A Trident Submarine

Fr. William "Bill" Bischel, S.J. was behind the perimeter fence line for over four hours before the and his group cut through the final fence, triggering a response from military personnel. "We cut through the second fence, which had a lot of sensors on it," says Bischel.  

"We got through. We were carrying banners with us that said 'Disarm now.' We carried some of our own blood to spill on the ground." Bischel and the others were arrested and charged, and late last year they were found guilty on all counts of conspiracy, trespassing and destruction of government property.

Their motivation for breaking into the base had no malicious intent, Bischel says. It was to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons, and make people aware of the nuclear warheads near Bremerton. "It's probably the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the United States that are there to arm eight Trident submarines, and there's 24 missiles on each submarine, each missile carries weapons that are anywhere from six to 30 times the power of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima," he says. "It's in our back yard. I couldn't ignore that. It's a big pile of death that is there." 

The group's objective was not allowed to be entered in the federal court testimony, nor was Bischel's justification for the property crimes. "If you were going down the road and a house was burning and there's a child or a person trapped in the upper story, you don't ask if you can break down the door to get in. We certainly liken our action to that," Bischel says. 

Prosecutors say the protesters went too far when they broke into a secure area, endangering themselves and military guards. Bischel and the others will be sentenced at the end of this month - March 28th - and they each face up to 10 years in prison. Bischel has no regrets and no remorse for what he did. He would do it again. "You could say I'm unrepentant," says Bischel.

Link (here) MyNorthwest.com

Scientific Jesuit

The Chilean strawberry is a native and paler version of the traditional strawberry, but no less sweet. In fact, some call it “pineapple strawberry” because its taste is similar to that of the tropical fruit. The first to try this type of berry were the Mapuche and Picunche peoples of the central and southern zone of the country. The first European to taste it was the Jesuit chronicler Alonso de Ovalle, who found this fruit in the countryside in the south of the country. For this reason he baptized it Fragaria chiloensis, or strawberry from the Chilean island of Chiloé. It is a very juicy and aromatic strawberry that is currently cultivated from the west of North America to the southernmost parts of Chile and Argentina. There are red, yellow and white varieties.

Link (here) to Exotic Fruit

On St. Patrick's Eve, £40 For Every Jesuit

On St. Patrick's eve, 1604, Father Christopher Holywood landed in Ireland as successor of Father Richard De la Field in the government of the Irish Mission, S.J. In the last week of Lent he reached the town (of Clonmel?) where Fathers Leinick and Murony were staying, and was soon joined by Father De la Field and by Fathers Walter Wall and Brian O'Kearney, two distinguished Jesuits, who had recently come to labour in this country, and were destined to render signal service to the cause of religion. Father De la Field informed the new Superior that he had not received a single letter from the General for more than five years.

In June, 1604, the house in which Father De la Field lodged was attacked by the pest which then raged in and around Dublin ; but he and his brethren had more formidable foes than the pest. The Lord President and Council of Munster did

"strictly command that all Jesuits do, before the 30th of September, depart and forsake any manner of residence within the province, and so to continue for the space of seven years ; and what person soever shall receive or relieve any of them shall suffer imprisonment during His Majesty's pleasure, and forfeit for every such offence, as often as committed, £40, the one half to the informer, the other to His Majesty's use. And whoever shall bring unto the Lord President and Council the bodies of any such shall immediately receive a reward of £40 for every Jesuit, and for every seminary £6 3J. A,d., and for every Massing priest, £5."

And the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland report that " few of the best houses of the Pale are free from relieving and receiving the Jesuits, seminaries, friars, and priests. The Council suggest a Proclamation from His Majesty for the expulsion of the Jesuits, &c., and for the punishment with severe penalties all their relievers and abettors,"
Link (here) to The Month, the article is entitled, Irish Worthies of the Sixteenth Century published in 1891.

Irish Jesuit On Barry Fitzgerald

"Barry Fitzgerald was a Dublin-born actor who was so successful at playing an Irish priest that he left an impression of all Irish priests as wise, holy and just a little bit daft. Fitzgerald was, in fact, a Protestant and his birthplace was beside a tiny synagogue (now the Irish Jewish Museum). The image of the Irish priest has changed: he is now seen in dark colours rather than dark clothing."

Link (here) to the post of Fr. Fergus O'Donoghue, SJ, his blog is entitled, Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review.

Blogger Note: In my opinion the world was made a better place with Barry Fitzgerald's classic performances in, Going My Way and The Quiet Man.

42,000 Photos Taken By One Irish Jesuit

Fr. Francis Browne, S.J.

An exciting new book featuring never seen before photographs taken by one of Ireland's greatest photographers, who was also a Jesuit priest, was published this week.

The book, entitled Fr Browne Yeats features nearly 42,000 prints by Fr Francis Browne, S.J., a native of Sunday's Well in Cork City, from when he was just a seventeen-year-old photographer in 1897 to shortly before his death in 1960. 

Coupled with the poetry of WB Yeats, the book features the Fr Browne’s pictures of people, panoramic scenes, ships, trains and landscapes - all shot on his primitive Kodak Box Camera.

Link (here) to the full story at Clerical Whispers 
Buy the book (here) at The Sacred Heart Messenger Publications

Former Jesuit Rocks Out

It’s got to be a good show when an 82-year-old former Jesuit priest rocks out. Leon Isaza yelled and sang along to lyrics like a young schoolgirl, pumping his fists into the air while Colombian superstar Juanes belted out a decade’s worth of award-winning songs infused with Latin folkloric rhythm and fierce guitar. While Isaza, a Colombia native, stuck out in a crowd of mostly 20- and 30-somethings Sunday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, he couldn’t help but be electrified by one of the most influential and dominant Spanish-language artists of the era, who feverishly bounced around the stage, giving his best to fans on the third stop of his worldwide tour behind his new album P.A.R.C.E.  ........The crowd roared as Juanes personally waved to fans, including his wife and daughter in the front row, and sent a smile and wave to Father Isaza, though the two don’t know each other. Isaza promptly put his cane to the side and swayed along to most of Juanes’ songs, rarely sitting down for a break.

Link (here) to Soundcheck

Amnesty International At A Jesuit High School

Amnesty International was created in London in 1961 to use peaceful means to stop injustices around the world. For its worldwide efforts, Amnesty International (AI) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977. The Belen Jesuit chapter of Amnesty International was established in 1992 by Ernesto Erdmann '93. Each month, students respond to an Urgent Action Appeal by writing letters to world leaders voicing their concern and protest violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The Belen chapter of AI reflects the Jesuit motto, Men for Others, as it labors to secure justice in the world.

Link (here) to Belen Jesuit's AI club 

Amnesty International defends access to abortion, read from their website (here)

The Holy See has broken off an alliance with Amnesty International "after its pro-abortion about-turn," the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has indicated. In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Cardinal Renato Martino, said that the Holy See is ceasing donations to Amnesty International as a result of the group's public advocacy for abortion. He urged Catholic donors to reconsider gifts to the organization. The Italian cardinal said that the Vatican's decision was an "inevitable consequence" of the new policy Amnesty has adopted. He said that policy is a betrayal of the original mission of the human-rights organization.
Link (here) to read the full article at Catholic Culture

Born A Japanese Samurai, And Truely Lived As A Jesuit

Father Paul Yachita Tsuchihashi, S.J. a former samurai warrior who lived to be one of the oldest Jesuit priests in the world, died recently at Sophia University, a Catholic college in Tokyo. He was 98 and an authority on the Chinese language.

In his youth Tsuchihashi wore the two swords signifying membership in a samurai warrior family, but he became attracted to Christianity. He entered the Jesuits at 22, was baptized “Paul” and journeyed to China to enter a Jesuit novitiate.

He pursued his studies in Paris, developing a knowledge of astronomy that led to his appointment as observatory director at the Jesuit Aurora University in Shanghai. When the order founded Sophia University in Tokyo in 1913 Father Paul returned to his homeland and remained on the faculty until his death. During World War II he was president of the university.

In recent years he had been proof reading a new 13 – volume Chinese dictionary.

"I believe I can finish the job by the time I am 100,” he said on his 95^th birthday. Finding an average of mistake per page in a work which already had been checked by leading scholars, the priest corrected six of the 13 volumes before he died.

Link (here) to the magazine entitled Black Belt published in July 1965

Photo (here)

26 Martyrs

The Mass on Aug. 10 at Nakamachi Catholic Church will commemorate the construction of San Lorenzo Church, built in 1610 and torn down in 1620 after the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868) banned Christianity. The Japanese and South Koreans in the group said the event will be held in hopes of fostering bilateral relations through religion, in the year that also marks the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of the Korean Peninsula. Mitsuaki Takami, archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nagasaki, who will be celebrating the Mass, said, "I hope the Mass will provide the members with an opportunity to appreciate the devout faith in Christianity those people showed at the time, to reflect on harsh historical relations of the two countries and eventually create a better relationship." The participants got together after Cho Kenji, a 66-year-old Korean-Japanese in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, who is studying the history of San Lorenzo Church, called on Christian groups in Nagasaki to organize the memorial event.

The Mass will also feature Renzo De Luca, a Jesuit priest and director of the Twenty-Six Martyrs Museum in Nagasaki. He will deliver a lecture on San Lorenzo Church and Korean Christians.

According to the Catholic Archdiocese of Nagasaki, San Lorenzo Church was built by Korean prisoners who were taken to Nagasaki and became Christians.

A Jesuit mission was based in Nagasaki at that time and many Japanese Christians also donated construction money for the church.

The church was pulled down after the shogunate banned the religion.

Link (here) to Japan Times

Saint Paul Miki, S.J. And Companions

The following comes from the catholic online site:

Paul was the son of a Japanese military leader. He was born at Tounucumada, Japan, was educated at the Jesuit collegeof Anziquiama, joined the Jesuits in 1580, and became known for his eloquent preaching. He was crucified on Februay 5 with twenty-five other Catholics during the persecution of Christians under the Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan in the name of the emperor. Among the Japanese layment who suffered the same fate were: Francis, a carpenter who was arrested while watching the executions and then crucified; Gabriel, the nineteen year old son of the Franciscan's porter; Leo Kinuya, a twenty-eight year old carpenter from Miyako; Diego Kisai (or Kizayemon), temporal coadjutor of the Jesuits; Joachim Sakakibara, cook for the Franciscans at Osaka; Peter Sukejiro, sent by a Jesuit priest to help the prisoners, who was then arrested; Cosmas Takeya from Owari, who had preached in Osaka; and Ventura from Miyako, who had been baptized by the Jesuits, gave up his Catholicism on the death of his father, became a bonze, and was brought back to the Church by the Franciscans. They were all canonized as the Martyrs of Japan in 1862. Their feast day is February 6th.

What Is Bound, Is Bound In Heaven

188 Japanese martyrs beatified

Christian martyrdom is the fullest expression of human freedom and reflects the supreme act of love, said a top Vatican official at a Mass beatifying 188 Japanese martyrs. "It is not the punishment or the torture that creates a martyr," but rather the fact the person suffered and died for Christ, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, former prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes, said during the beatification Mass in Nagasaki, Japan, on November 24.

The 188 17th-century Japanese martyrs were tortured and killed in different cities between 1603 and 1639 after the Japanese government outlawed Christianity. According to Vatican Radio, more than 30,000 people attended the ceremony in the city's baseball stadium in the pouring rain to celebrate the beatification of Jesuit Father Peter Kibe Kasui and 187 companions.

After his Angelus address to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square the previous day, Pope Benedict XVI said the martyrs' beatification marked a significant event for the Catholic Church and all of Japan.
The Pope asked people to "rejoice" and pray the beatified martyrs' "victory in Christ over sin and death fill us all with hope and courage”. During the Mass, which was concelebrated by 10 cardinals and bishops, Cardinal Saraiva Martins said martyrs of every age, place and time have all displayed the same dedicated faith in Jesus Christ.

Christian martyrdom "is the fullest exercise of human liberty and the supreme act of love", he said. The newly beatified, all but five of whom are lay men, women, and children, had been decapitated, crucified, burned at the stake or scalded to death in boiling water.

The beatified group included entire families who refused to renounce their beliefs. Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu, president of the Japanese bishops' commission which prepared the beatifications, said there are another 5,000 people who could have been recognised as martyrs.

He said nearly 20,000 people lost their lives in Japan because of anti-Christian persecution. It is thought that less than one per cent of almost 130 million Japanese are Christians, and only around 450,000 are Catholics.

Buddhism and Shintoism are the main religions in the country. Premier Taro Aso is reportedly the first Catholic to become prime minister. However, he rarely refers to his religion in public and did not attend the ceremony.

Link (here)

Photo is a statue of Blessed Peter Kibe Kasui, SJ