Oura Church

The Universal Church: Oura Church of Nagasaki

The history of Catholicism in Japan is riddled with martyrdom and tragedy. The Japanese knew virtually nothing of the Christian faith prior to 1549, when St. Francis Xavier entered this island nation. Missionary activity in Japan flourished for a time: it is estimated that more than 300,000 Japanese became Catholic in the years that followed.

However, the government of Japan officially banned the faith in 1587, fearing it would lead to European military strength. This began a time of massive persecution. Martyrdom was the fate of many priests and laity, although some Japanese were able to continue to practice of the Catholic faith underground.

In the city of Nagasaki, Fr. Bernard Petitjean built the Oura Church to minister to Catholics, both new converts and those who had lived their faith underground. The Oura Church was blessed in 1865, in honor of 26 martyrs who were crucified in the era of persecution. Pope Pius XI eventually named Fr. Petitjean vicar apostolic, and the Oura Church became the cathedral.

Unfortunately, the Japanese government remained hostile to the Catholic faith, and persecution continued. Over 3400 Japanese Catholics were imprisoned, and the government carried out a vicious campaign to force them to deny their faith. More than 600 died in prison. In 1872, the Japanese officially dropped its policy of persecution of Christians, as the government was eager to open trade with European countries. This allowed the Catholics to worship openly.

Upon returning to their lands, they found everything gone—their farming equipment, boats, furniture—with their once-neat rice paddies overtaken by wilderness.

By 1895 the Urakami Catholics had saved enough to build a stone and brick cathedral under the direction of their amateur architect priest [Fr. Petitjean]. It was a colossal effort, all done by poor people who had to learn everything, from the making of cement to the sculpture of statues. The project was stopped several times as money ran out. Finally, twenty-two years after the first foundation stones were dragged up the hill, the cathedral was completed. The year was 1917. It was 230 feet long, accommodating five thousand worshippers—the largest cathedral in the Far East, with two bell towers more than one hundred feet high. It was named St. Mary’s Cathedral.

While the Oura Church still stands as the oldest Catholic church in Japan, St. Mary’s Cathedral was destroyed by the atomic bomb dropped in that city by Allied Forces in 1945. The cathedral was rebuilt in 1959.

Today, less than 1% of the Japanese population are Catholic, and the faith still struggles to gain acceptance, as it is viewed as a “Western” religion, and its practices and theology considered foreign. The Oura Church has been designated a National Heritage site by the Japanese government and remains a popular place for visitors, both Japanese and foreign. It has survived persecution, an atomic bomb and natural disasters – it truly is a church whose foundation was built on the blood of martyrs.

faithful

God Is Faithful To Us Even In The Fires Of Life

The first reading for Mass today is one that grabs our imagination and attention. In the book of Daniel, we hear the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (take a few minutes to read it here.)

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has set himself up as a god in Babylon, and is forcing the Jews living in exile there to treat him as such. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are having none of it. Their reward for their faithfulness to God? They get shoved into a furnace.

For most of us, the idea of suffering such a horrific fate because of our religious beliefs is absolutely unthinkable. We give almost no thought to the luxury of going to Mass whenever and wherever we wish, of wearing a cross, a crucifix or some other symbol of our faith openly, or having a religious item on our desk at work.

Yet so many Christians in our world today are suffering the fate of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. On March 10 in Washington, D.C, a joint project between the Knights of Columbus and a group called In Defense of Christians (IDC) was presented at a press conference. Reporters and aide workers gave witness to the  genocide of Christians in the Middle East by ISIS. The stories are hard to bear, but they remind us that the those faithful to God, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are still called upon to hold on to their faith in impossibly brave manners.

I went to Iraq three weeks ago and met a 3-year-old girl whom ISIS members had thrown against a wall. She can no longer talk. Where was her father? He had been murdered, as he was a Christian,” stated Juliana Taimoorazy, an Assyrian Christian and president of Iraqi Christian Relief Council.

“The report has unearthed many stories that the world has not heard,” IDC President Toufic Baaklini told the packed room. “Like the story of Christian women who have been forced into sexual slavery and listed on ISIS slave menus that put a price on ‘Christian or Yazidi’ women by age.”

Baaklini told the story of a woman named Claudia, who was captured and raped repeatedly after ISIS militants saw that she bore a tattoo of a cross. Another woman, Khalia, fought off ISIS militants as they attempted to rape captive girls and take a 9-year-old as a wife.

In the reading from Daniel, the men’s complete abandonment to the will of God, their raw and honest sorrow for their sins and the sins of their people, and their ability to praise God under torturous circumstances end up changing the mind of the king. He releases the men from the furnace, and he wishes peace upon them and his people. (The story continues, but  you’ll just have to read it yourself!)

It would be best for all if the horrors of persecution and genocide of modern-day Christians would have such a swift, decisive and positive solution. We do not know why God is asking this of his people in the Middle East. We do not know why God asked three young men in ancient Babylon to stand up for their faith and refuse to bow down to an idol. We do not know why God has allowed cancer to grow in the body of a loved one, or has allowed an accident which leaves a friend gravely injured.

The only thing we do know: Christ is always with us in our suffering. We are never, ever asked to be alone during hardship, trials, illness, even the torture we’ve discussed here. God is ours, and we are His people, forever and ever.