Pope begins Japan visit
He calls for end of nuclear weapons, calls them ‘evil.’
TOKYO — Pope Francis denounced the “evil” of nuclear weapons on Saturday as he began a three-day visit to Japan and fulfilled a dream to be a missionary in a land with a rich but bloody Christian past.
The pope’s plane landed in the rain in Tokyo, where he received a small welcome at the airport before heading to the Vatican residence to meet with Japanese bishops. Streets near the residence were lined with smiling well-wishers holding umbrellas. One group held a banner that read: “Gracias! We love you.”
After a packed three days in Thailand, Francis has an even busier schedule in Japan, starting off with flights today to Nagasaki and Hiroshima to appeal for total nuclear disar- mament and a meeting Monday with victims of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Those meetings come before he even meets with Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a sign of his priorities for the trip.
Francis told the bishops upon arrival that he wanted to pay tribute to the victims of the atomic bombings and meet with survivors, “those who still bear the wounds of this tragic episode in human history.”
“Evil has no preferences; it does not care about people’s background or identity,” Francis said. “It simply bursts in with its destructive force.”
Francis has gone further than any other pope by saying that not only the use but the mere possession of nuclear weapons is “to be condemned.”
It’s a message he’s expected to repeat today, and it’s one that has been welcomed by Japanese old enough to remember the bombings.
“I hope he will deliver the message of true peace to Japan and to the world,” said Ryohei Sakamoto, 71, a Catholic who was waiting for Francis outside the nunciature Saturday afternoon. “And I hope the world will listen to him and his message. That’s what I wish he could do on this visit.”
Francis told the bishops how, as a young Jesuit in Argentina, he had longed to be a missionary in Japan, following in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit who first brought Christianity to the archipelago in 1549.
While health reasons prevented Francis from realizing that dream, he said he nevertheless nurtured a continued affection for Japan and was inspired by the Christians who endured more than two centuries of persecution starting in the 16th century.
“Such self-sacrifice for the sake of keeping the faith alive amid persecution helped the small Christian community to develop, grow strong and bear fruit,” Francis told the bishops.
One of the highlights of the trip will be Francis’ prayer today at the memorial of the 26 Nagasaki Martyrs, who were crucified in 1597 at the start of the wave of anti-Christian bloodshed by Japanese rulers.
Francis will also greet descendants of the “Hidden Christians,” who persevered in their faith for generations despite the threat of death and the absence of priests.
Francis’ other key aim in coming to Japan is to tend to today’s tiny Catholic flock, which has grown exponentially more diverse in recent years due to an influx of foreign workers. Today, these temporary workers make up more than half of Japan’s Catholic population of 440,000, according to the Archdiocese of Tokyo’s international center.
Overall, Catholics account for less than 0.5% of Japan’s 127 million people, most of them loosely affiliated with Buddhism or Shinto, or both.
Japan had long kept its door closed to immigrants, but the country last year adopted a new policy to open up unskilled jobs to temporary foreign workers, a major revision to the country’s policy to deal with its rapidly aging and declining population.
Francis has made welcoming migrants a hallmark of his papacy, and he told his bishops that their ministry to foreign workers was a precious demonstration of their commitment to spreading the faith.