The Catholic charity is the fourth recipient of the Human Dignity Award by Nanzan University, a Catholic institution. Caritas President Card Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo and a former student, collected the prize. In his address, the prelate mentioned Caritas’s missionary origins, and its transformation into a confederation of 162 national chapters, involved in ongoing emergencies, like Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar. He noted that the organisation does “not act for the poor – we act with them". It is never a "stranger", but always "part of the community".
Vatican Museums Director Barbara Jatta and Auxiliary Bishop Andrea Lembo of Tokyo explained the symbol of hope lent by the Vatican to the world expo currently underway in Japan. The painting is on display for six months in a dedicated area inside the Italian Pavilion. For the prelate, “Caravaggio does not ask us to believe. He only asks us to look and try to recognise that that body could be ours”.
Taku Etō resigned after saying that he personally had too much rice in a country where the price of the staple food has been steadily rising for several months, caused by greater consumption sparked by a tourism boom, and by regulated output. Rice is now a pawn in tariff negotiations with Washington.
About 570,000 Vietnamese live in Japan, many attracted by promises of qualified jobs linked to the Gijinkoku visa. Yet many are employed as trainees and underpaid. In Chiba, 150 workers are suing an agency for unpaid wages. The story puts the spotlight on a murky and abusive recruitment system.
The archbishop of Osaka-Takamatsu, 76, is one of two Japanese cardinals at the conclave. His great-grandfather, who personally lived the experience of the "hidden Christians", told him stories that sparked his priestly vocation. A master of poetry, he is also a passionate fisherman. The son of a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bomb, he strongly condemns nuclear rearmament and deterrence.
As a young priest, the Verbite was a missionary in rural Ghana. Archbishop of Tokyo since 2017, he was elected president of Caritas Internationalis by the assembly of delegates two years ago. At 66, he leads a Church that is coming to terms with the loneliness and contradictions of the great metropolises, stressing the dignity of every human life. During the synod a few months ago, he said, “even Europe today is becoming a periphery.”
