Pope Francis: 'I hope to visit
Japan next year'
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| Pope Francis meets members of the Tensho Kenoho Shinetsu Kenshokai Association in Japan.(Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis meets delegates of the Tensho Kenoho Shisetsu
Kenshokai Association before the weekly General Audience and expresses his wish
to visit Japan next year.
This Japanese Association is known for promoting projects
of culture and solidarity and on Wednesday Pope Francis met
the group in the Paul the VI complex, reminding them of another long journey to
meet a Pope.
The Pontiff recalled the visit more than 400 years ago, in
1585, when four young Japanese arrived in Rome, accompanied by some Jesuit
missionaries, to visit the Pope, who was then Gregory XIII.
The Pope pointed out that it was the first time that a group
of representatives from Japan had come to Europe and he described it as
an historic meeting between two great cultures and spiritual
traditions and deserved to be remembered.
In particular, Pope Francis recalled the men’s leader at the
time Mancio Ito, who became a priest, and Julian Nakaura who, he said, like
many others, was executed on the famous hill of the martyrs of Nagasaki and was
proclaimed blessed.
The Pope during the meeting noted the efforts of the
Association “to set up a fund for the training of young people and orphans,
thanks to the contribution of companies that are sensitive to their problems.”
The Holy Father added that, their wish to show that
religion, culture and the economy can work together peacefully to create a more
humane world marked by an integral ecology was fully in
accordance with what he himself was wishing for.
During his greetings to those gathered, Pope Francis
expressed his desire to visit Japan next year and also hoped that
after Wednesday's meeting the group would be encouraged to return to their
country as ambassadors of friendship and promoters of great human and
Christian values.
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