The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1958-02-28
Low Conversion Rate:
Church Position Different
In Northern Japan

Bv Erik Won Kuehnelf-Led dihn
The position of the Church in the center and in
the North of Japan differs radically from that In
the South. Unencumbered by traditions or bitter
memories of the Church, over a number OF years,
gained a select rather than a large number or con-
verts. Those who simply wanted to become wester-
nized in a religious fashion choose one OF the hber-
al Protestant faiths, whereas those who desired true
Christianity usually turned to the Catholic Church
which also happens to have a historical Japanese
background. I'm Nagasaki the souvenir shops even
sell dolls in nuns hablts)
Repeated questioning of foreign missionaries as
well as of Japanese Catholics reveals a not too over
whelming number of conversions but, on the other
hand, a gradual capture of the highest layers of SO
ciety and the intellectual world -. a situation radi-
cally different from that of Kyushu. AS a matter
of fact, in Central and Northern Japan it is almost
smart to be or to become a Catholic. The Jesuit
Sophia University publishes an intellectual quarter
ly and a monthly Comparable to THOUGHT and
THEOLOGICAL STUDIES), but there are also
many other publications. The Japanese are great
intellectualists and although | consider them to be
sentimental rather than rational, they have an in
nate, deadly respect for rational thinking.
Although they pay their teachers and profess
sors miserably the educator enjoys almost divine
honors. q know of a first rate secretary, working
for an American company, who gets about twice the
salary of a university professor but money alone
does not give her 'face"). Thus one can find some
of the highest types of people morally, intellectual
ly, socially in Japan's Catholic camp, and from
them, some day, one can also expect real leadership.
| had the opportunity to meet some OF them and the
immediate impression was one of humor, ease, of a
connectedness with the world at large, of a less mel
ancholic outlook on life, and of a more elevated po-
sition of the women. There can be no doubt (and all
Catholic observers agree) that Japan's Catholic prob
lem is to create Catholic homes with Catholic fami-s
lies living exemplary Catholic lives. This is diff
cult to achieve since a large percentage OF the Catho-
lie girls, living IN a 1870 pagan world, are bound to
contract pagan marriages and the Catholic educa-
tional institutions have to envisage the not very en-
viable goal of educating their charges to be mothers
of Catholics and wives of Pagans.
| keep a wonderful memory of my visits to the
Academy and College of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo
Japanese, not the "International' division), insti-
buttons which also keep an eye on the future fate
of their students. Their admirable innovation is a
married circle for married alumnae AND their hus-
bands. They just started with Is families, nine of
them mixed. The main purpose, naturally, is to bring
together the men - Catholics and Pagans - in order
to facilitate the conversion Of the latter. The work
of these Colleges cannot be overestimated in its eff
fectiveness. They convert an amazing percentage OF
students from the highest and most influential circles
who still desire a strict and spiritual education for
their daughters. (The merely wealthy, newly rich,
and smart set has other ambitions.)
The result of this twO-prOnged intellectual and
social attack by the Church in the north has been
that Catholics are respected and. that nobody con-
siders them either "un-Japanese' or naive" or so
cially inferior. One priest insisted that the mere
fact that the A-bOmb killed in one stroke 5000 wOr-
shipping Catholics integrated the Catholic faith ply
chologically in the Japanese mind as something be-
longing to them, havinug participated in the suffer-
ing the entire natoin. 1t is therefore not surprising
that the Chief Justice of Japan is a Catholic who
writes profusely about the Natural Law, or that ad-
mirals, generals, biologists, authors, and poets abound
among Japan's Catholics.
The Faith will have greater difficulties in deal
ing with the middle and lower layers. Most diff
cult of all is the conversion of the successful bust
nessman who has mo tinie" for thought or spiritual
life, who is engulfed in the current wave of material
ism and prosperity The residues of the ancient
faiths - Buddhism and Shintoism - are not serious
competitors although efforts are being made to re-
vive the former. / had the opportunity to visit a fa-
nous Buddhist monastery, accompanied by a Jesuit
who knows the retreat master. was most mpress-
ed by an account of the spiritual exercises of Zen
Buddhists, monks and laymen alike, and moved by
a ceremony of worship which had SO many Catholic
externals. Nor could l remain Indifferent to the evil
dent yearning Of the human soul for the eternal and
spiritual, the sublime and the divine, but, at the
same time, / realized that the pagan religions Of
Japan, many of them noble and inspiring, could not
ism which the West imported and helped to develop.
Unless we in America and Europe make a supreme
effort to assist our Church in filling the void we
helped to create, the enormous void of Japan will be
invaded by materialism in a very concrete, ration
allied, and militant form and this does not mean
a hedonistc "Americanization," it means Commune
ism.
down modification. The col seem to be much more i'm.
Ject (oration> for tha Fret pOrtant to include (alSo1 resp