austraLasia #2668 Church in Japan notes falling numbers
TOKYO: 1 July 2010 - - Some information the general situation
of the Church in Japan may help us understand the challenges, and also
appreciate even better the Salesian presence there, especially as, with
a hundred plus confreres in a relatively small population of Catholics,
Salesians are active in a wide variety of ministries.
The Japanese bishops' conference notes that the
number of registered Catholics in the country has fallen to under
450,000. This number shows a decrease of 0.5% over the past year,
UCANews reported recently. The statistics collected by the bishops'
conference show that 60% of these Catholics are women.
Regarding the clergy, 24 bishops, including both
active and retired, were counted. This number includes one Salesian
bishop. The priests working in the country numbered 1,481, with 887 of
them originating from Japan. The seminaries counted 91 young men
studying for the priesthood, with another 38 in the minor seminary. All
but three of the 35 deacons serving in the country are Japanese.
The great majority of female religious, totaling
5,678, are Japanese (5,419). For the male religious, 150 of the 201 in
total are Japanese. Over the past year, 6,914 people were baptized,
3,594 of them being age 8 and older.
The 798 parishes in Japan counted 111,647 Sunday
Mass-goers, a number that has dropped 8% compared to 2004. Around
197,517 faithful were counted at Easter Mass, while 254,298 were at
Christmas Mass.
One important aspect note mentioned in the Zenit
report from which the above figures came is the real changing face of
Catholicism in Japan represented by the migrant population. Immigrants
now outnumber the national Catholic population. According to the
Japanese Immigration Bureau more than 2 million foreign residents live
in Japan, a country of 127 million people. More than half of these are
Korean and Chinese. Of the rest Brazilians account for more than
300,000, followed by Filipinos at 200,000 and Peruvians with 60,000.
The majority of these latter three groups, obviously, are Catholic,
though not necessarily practising. The Salesian outreach to these
often struggling immigrants is a particularly well-noted aspect of
recent years. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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