Papal tribute to Japan's 'hidden Christians'
March 20, 2015
Pope Francis paid homage to the “hidden Christians” of Japan, who kept the faith alive after priests were expelled from the country, during a March 20 meeting with the Japanese Catholic bishops.
The Pope told the bishops, who were making their ad limina visits, that the example set by the “hidden Christians” should encourage today’s Catholics in the work of evangelization. “If our missionary efforts are to bear fruit, the example of the hidden Christians has much to teach us,” he said, noting that evangelization is a task for lay people as well as priests and missionaries. He said:
The embers of faith which the Holy Spirit ignited through the preaching of these evangelizers and sustained by the witness of the martyrs were kept safe, through the care of the lay faithful who maintained the Catholic community’s life of prayer and catechesis in the midst of great danger and persecution.
During his meeting with the Japanese bishops the Holy Father praised the work of the Church in Japan in the fields of education, health care, and service to those in need. He offered a special word of thanks to the bishops for “your initiatives in favor of peace, especially your efforts to keep before the world the immense suffering experienced by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War seventy years ago.”
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