Life Issues in Church

Recently a reader asked if I had ever heard anyone talk about life issues such as abortion in church and the answer sadly is no.   Of course there may be some priests who mention such things in church however I have not personally heard them here.  I have never heard a homily here that even touches anything controversial even though  several weeks ago the readings were about leprosy so a perfect chance to talk about even that was avoided.  I think there are at least four reasons why sensitive issues like abortion are not mentioned.  1 it has been around for so long here (1950) that it seems to not be challenged or contested and just accepted.  2.  No one wants to talk about it for fear of upsetting anyone who may have had an abortion or fear of just upsetting everyone.  I think even talking about hell is avoided for the same reason its simply not a pleasant subject.  3.  People seem to be more focused on promoting and talking about peace and charity related things especially aid to poorer countries.  There is nothing wrong with being charitable etc I just think other issues are more important.   4.  the Archbishop of Denver said recently about the past forty years in the U.S which I think applies to some extent to Japan as well.

Chaput expanded, “It seems like there has been a very bad period of catechesis of people in the Church, not only catechesis of the laity but also catechesis of the clergy and it’s bearing bad fruit in our time.”

“We need to reinvigorate the Church’s understanding of the horror of abortion,” Chaput continued. “It seems that we have become deadened to the horror of abortion.”  source

41 Baptisms

On Saturday February 28 I went to mass at the cathedral in Yokohama and guess what.  The priest said that the next day there would be 41 people from that church baptized!!    Yes 41.   Now that is not my normal parish so I don’t have any more details but just hearing that was very encouraging.  For almost one year I have been praying the Rosary with one of the intentions that many Japanese people would encounter Jesus so I cant help but wonder if my prayers even helped just a tiny bit.  It would be amazing if that was true since I am not perfect at all!  I pray too fast, I get distracted, I skip some days and so on but maybe there is a tiny chance God used some of that hmm…

Man Arrested Over Statue Theft

KYOTO — A Mie Prefecture resident has been arrested in connection with the theft of a statue from Kennin-ji, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, police said.

Police have arrested Itsuo Abe, 59, from Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, on suspicion of stealing a wooden statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy from Kennin-ji, Japan’s oldest known Zen Buddhist temple.

The statue itself is 70 centimeters high, weighs about 3 kilograms, and dates back to the early Edo period, when it was donated to the temple by Masako Tokugawa, a daughter of shogun Hidetada Tokugawa. It is not a designated cultural asset.

article here

Some readers may recall that this isn’t the first time I have posted such a story.  I post these articles because they involve the theft of religious statues, and to draw attention to the fact that this kind of crime happens anywhere.  In other countries Catholic statues are targeted usually by vandals and not stolen but a crime is a crime.  I know in one article the guy stole many statues and then told police he did it because the statues kept him company and/or he thought they looked cold.  In other cases though my guess is maybe they want to sell the statues.