JAPAN

New Zealand Tablet, 4 January 1912, Page 47

JAPAN

28 ' ';; A REMARKABLE INCREASE. The death of Bishop Cousin marks the passing of one of the pioneers of the faith in Japan. He was ordained in 1865 and arrived in the mission where he labored so faithfully the same year. ;He succeeded the :famous ■ Bishop petitjean as head of the diocese of Nagasaki. - On March 17, 1910, at the celebration of the feast of the Finding of the Christians, he recalled I

many scenes of which he was the eyewitness. In 1865, when he arrived in Japan, there were only five priests and hot a single neophyte. - Twenty-five years later, at the General Synod of Japan there were three Bishops, twenty European missionaries, fifteen native priests, thirty seminarians, and two thousand Christians. In 1891 Pope Leo established the Japanese Hierarchy. Particular care of Bishop Cousin was the native clergy, drawn principally from the old Christians, the children of the. martyrs. ;. He ordained during his twenty-five years forty Japanese priests. He 'established thirtyfive missions and dedicated fifty churches and chapels. The Catholic population of Nagasaki in 1885, when he took charge of -the diocese, was 23,000, and last year the census showed 47,000. The number was doubled in twenty-five years. The Bishop was forty-five years a missionary in Japan. ; '-, .-,--•-.-