教宗告诫日本主教：传教士和“隐身的基督徒”是你们教会的指南针
梵蒂冈城（亚洲新闻）—“隐身基督徒”的见证、为日本福传奉献的传教士们“是日本天主教会历史的两大支柱。今天，继续支持着教会生活、提供了善度信仰生活的指导。无论在任何时代、任何国家，教会都是传教的教会，努力展开福传、在各国履行门徒的使命，而信仰团体的信德继续丰富、在信德的激励下他们在家庭和社会中的责任感不断加强”。这是教宗方济各在接见前来述职的日本主教团时发表的讲话。以下为教宗讲话全文英文版。
Dear Brother Bishops,
I offer you a warm welcome on the occasion of your
Visit ad Limina Apostolorum, as you make your pilgrimage to the tombs of Saints
Peter and Paul. Your presence here brings me great joy, for this is an
opportunity to renew the bonds of love and communion between the See of Peter
and the Church in Japan, and to reflect on the life of your local communities.
I am grateful to Archbishop Okada for the greetings offered in your name and
that of the priests, religious and lay faithful of your dioceses. I ask you to
offer them the assurance of my affection and prayers.
The Church in Japan has experienced abundant blessings
but has equally known suffering. From those joys and sorrows, your ancestors in
the faith have bequeathed to you a living heritage that adorns the Church today
and encourages her journey toward the future. This heritage is rooted in the
missionaries who first reached your shores and proclaimed the Word of God,
Jesus Christ. We think especially of Saint Francis Xavier, his companions, and
all those who through the years offered their lives in service of the Gospel
and the Japanese people. For many of these missionaries, as well as for some of
the first members of the Japanese Catholic community, their witness to Christ
led to the shedding of their blood and, through this sacrifice, brought many
blessings to the Church, strengthening the faith of the people. We recall
especially Saint Paul Miki and companions whose steadfast faith in the midst of
persecution became an encouragement for the small Christian community to
persevere in every trial.
This year you celebrate another facet of this rich
heritage - the emergence of the "hidden Christians". Even when all
lay missionaries and priests had been expelled from the country, the faith of
the Christian community did not grow cold. Rather, the embers of faith which
the Holy Spirit ignited through the preaching of these evangelizers and
sustained by the witness of the martyrs were kept safe, through the care of the
lay faithful who maintained the Catholic community's life of prayer and
catechesis in the midst of great danger and persecution.
These two pillars of Catholic history in Japan,
missionary activity and the "hidden Christians", continue to support
the life of the Church today, and offer a guide to living the faith. In every
age and land, the Church remains a missionary Church, seeking to evangelize and
make disciples of all nations, while continually enriching the faith of the
community of believers and instilling in them the responsibility to nurture
this faith in the home and society.
I join with you in expressing deep gratitude to the
many missionaries who contribute even now to your dioceses. In cooperation with
local priests and religious, as well as lay leaders, they generously assist in
meeting the needs, not only of the Catholic community, but the broader society
as well. In addition to supporting their various efforts of evangelization, I
encourage you also to be attentive to their spiritual and human needs so that
they do not become discouraged in their service but persevere in their labors.
May you also offer them guidance in understanding the customs of the Japanese
people, so that they may be ever more effective servants of the Gospel, and
together seek new ways of evangelizing the culture (cf. Evangelii Gaudium,
69).
The work of evangelization, however, is not the sole
responsibility of those who leave their homes and go to distant lands to preach
the Gospel. In fact, by our baptism, we are all called to be evangelizers and
to witness to the Good News of Jesus wherever we are (Mt 28:19-20). We
are called to go forth, to be an evangelizing community, even if that simply
means opening the front door of our homes and stepping out into our own
neighborhoods. "An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed
in people's daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if
necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ
in others. Evangelizers thus take on the 'smell of the sheep' and the sheep are
willing to hear their voice" (Evangelii Gaudium, 24). Though the
Catholic community is small, your local Churches are esteemed by Japanese
society for your many contributions, born of your Christian identity, which
serve people regardless of religion. I commend your many efforts in the fields
of education, healthcare, service to the elderly, infirm, and handicapped, and
your charitable works which have been especially important in response to the
tragic devastation wrought by the earthquake and tsunami four years ago. So too
I express deep appreciation for your initiatives in favor of peace, especially
your efforts to keep before the world the immense suffering experienced by the
people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War seventy
years ago. In all of these works, you not only meet the needs of the community,
but you also create opportunities for dialogue between the Church and society.
Such dialogue is especially important, for it fosters mutual understanding and
promotes greater cooperation for the common good. But it also opens new avenues
to preaching the Gospel and inviting those whom we serve to an encounter with
Jesus Christ. May we never shy away from preaching the Gospel and, by our good
works, witnessing to Christ (cf. Jas 2:18).
If our missionary efforts are to bear fruit, the
example of the "hidden Christians" has much to teach us. Though small
in number and daily facing persecution, these believers were able to preserve
the faith by being attentive to their personal relationship with Jesus, a relationship
built on a solid prayer life and a sincere commitment to the welfare of the
community. The Church today, likewise, is strengthened and her evangelization
efforts are made effective when her faithful are anchored in a personal
relationship with Christ and supported by parish and ecclesial communities
which accompany them daily.
Though the "hidden Christians" did not have
the benefit of the full sacramental life of the Church, today your local
Churches enjoy the ministry of many dedicated priests who serve the spiritual
needs of the faithful. The demands placed on them are great, however, and their
numerous responsibilities often take them away from the very people they are
intended to serve. I urge you to work with your priests to ensure that they
have the time and freedom needed to be available to those entrusted to their
care. So that they may be effective in proclaiming the Gospel, I ask you to
give particular attention to their human and spiritual formation, not only
while in seminary, but throughout the whole of their lives. May your priests
see in you both a father who is ever available to his sons, and a brother who
remains always at their side to share the happiness and difficulties of their
lives. This strong witness of fraternity and communion between Bishops and
their priests will help young men to more easily discern and take up the call
to priesthood.
Your communities are further strengthened by the
witness of religious men and women whose consecration prefigures the new
Jerusalem in heaven and whose apostolates serve the building up of Christ's
Kingdom on earth (Rev 21:1-2). I also join you in thanking the Lord
for the gift of religious life in Japan, for those from abroad and for those
from your local communities. In union with your priests and lay leaders, they
generously serve the Church in Japan and offer to society the fruits of their
faith. May they always know your support, and may you seek new opportunities
for cooperation in apostolic works.
The "hidden Christians" of Japan remind us
that the work of fostering the life of the Church and of evangelizing require
the full and active participation of the lay faithful. Their mission is
twofold: to engage in the life of the parish and local Church, and to permeate
the social order with their Christian witness. This mission is accomplished
above all in the family, where faith accompanies every age of life and
enlightens all our relationships in society (cf. Lumen Fidei, 53-54).
When we give our attention and resources to supporting the family, beginning
with marriage preparation and continuing with catechesis for all stages of
life, we enrich our parishes and local Churches. So too, our societies and
cultures are permeated with the fragrance of the Gospel. Through the witness of
the Japanese faithful, "the Church expresses her genuine catholicity and
shows forth the 'beauty of her varied face'" (Evangelii Gaudium,
116). So often, when we find this witness lacking, it is not because the
faithful do not want to be missionary disciples, but rather because they think
themselves incapable of the task. I encourage you as Pastors to instill in them
a deep appreciation of their calling and to offer them concrete expressions of
support and guidance so that they may answer this call with generosity and
courage.
Dear Brothers, I thank you for the Christian witness
which you and your local Churches daily provide. With these thoughts, I entrust
you to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, and I willingly extend
my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of peace and joy in the Lord.
22/03/2021 15:17
18/03/2005
02/03/2005
30/09/2004
30/07/2004
