THE FAiTH IN JAPAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, 5 January 1905, Page 15

THE FAiTH IN JAPAN.

The Rev Thomas J. Campbell, S. J., wirititog in Benziger s Home AnlnUal,' contributes an informing article c#i tha state of Catholicism in the dominions of the Mfkajdio. Most Catholics are aware thai in t|he middle of Hhe sixteemtlh century St. Francis X^viea: left the new of iiis apostolic labors in India fired with the deslA.e of Qomwrting tihe inhabitants .of Japan and the cjhor Easitern islands to Christianity. The record of the heroic labors of the saint and a few cJomfcanioiis ' is one of flic most glorioius chapters in the history of the V n -JJ 1 ™ «?£ t<he end of the centwry, s/ays Father Campbell, 7o|o,ao'o converts had bean made. Theto ttie era of pereedutiion commenced. In 16d2 William Adame an Emglish soa calptain, secured the confidence of the Emperor Daifiosama arid persuaded him that the " Catholic missionaries were political emissaries of Portugal bent on preparing the way for the cpnqjuesti of Japan.' In <lhe persecution whiqh Daifosatna begapi, and which was continued by «he Shoguns, hundreds of thousaJnd^—meTi womem, anid even little children— suffer ad death in the nyost cruel forms for the faith they had adoptfld Christianity was overwhelmed in the deluge of blDod, atiri for centaur ies no effort availed to raise again the ruined Cliurqh. of Jajpan. For two centuries JaipaJn Remained Closed to ForeignersBut at letngtih, in cdnseqiuence of the ill-treatment of some shipwjedke'd American 'sailors by the Japanese, a squa(d>rton of America^ warships entered the |>ort *>f Tokio, and aa a result of their demands certai/h Japanese I,o wns wore 1 opened to the tflatie of foreign nations,. The treaty by which this concession was granted was concluded in 1-854. Wiflh the traders *he missiikjriaries also entered. The Catholic missions to Japan were entrusted to the Fathers of the Society of Foreign Missions. The woifk .of the Catholic missions was, at first, beset witjh majny difficulties., and ite progress was necesisarily slow. But the unexpected discovery ol some impiortaht remains of tihe older Church at length offered the laborers a brighter prospect. How that discovery was made Father Cam'pbell tells ub in graphic fashicln. Father Petitjean, oaie of the Japanese missionaries, had succeeded,, 'aft«er many efforts, m building a small chUrcn at Nagasaki in 1865. ' The church had hardly been opened a n}o,nth when, on March 17, something extraordinary hlaJppQned. On that 'day, after Masis, the ipries-t wasi kneeling iln his little dhurch, somewhat dejected at heart, for !his efforts did not seem to be as siuccesjsful as he hlolpeti. Sjuddehly he found three women kneelinc alongside Tiim. They bluntly toJd him that they thought their religion was tihe same as his. Father Petitjean Wad -never seen them before, and was quite taken aback by taiiree questions proposed by t)he strajngeps : Ist. Have ypu a Pope ? '2nd. Do y/bu pray to -the Blessed Virgin ? 3 rid. Are you married ? To the fitrst two questions tihe nriestt, of oourse, answered in the affirmative; •negatively to the last. " Then we are like y ( oiu," said the inquisitors. To his amazement, the missionary fquirid that there were Gcoups of CaWiolics scattered through the country, who had handed down the faith from father to son during almost three centuries ; ntutilating tihe doctrine, of oourse, to some extent, hut preserving substantially what had bedn the treasure of tlheir martyred ancestors. Baptism and marriage were the only sacraments they oolite administer, but through these two channels God had poureid forth His Grace in marvellous abundance. Around N'agjasiaiki alone— whiah will be remembered as the principal 1 scene of the old martyrdoms, 250,1) of these CryptoOhristianis were found. In one place there was"a settlement of as many as J'ooo Christian families. Twentyfive other gro\mps were faurid in various localities.' There are at ,present four dioceses, Tokto, Os,atoa, Nagasaki, and Ho-kcfclatie, with 55,450 Catholics, a small number now when we consider that there were at one time 2, ; 00i0v000 Oatlholics. Scarcely ninety years elapsed between the arrival of Francis Xaivier and the last persecution, wJhich was supposed tD have completely blotted o,ut the Churcih ; and, nevertheless, in- that extraordinarily brief period, Those Marvellduis Results were ajohiefved which not only funniaihed 2ftO,oo>o martyrs, but nwie other countless thousalmis fait-hfiul to Catholicism after it had apparently disappeared from the world, as far as they knew.