Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tokyo (Fides Service) - Japanese Catholics are using the Internet to read the Bible and the lives of the Saints and to pray for the new Pope. Catholic web sites in Japan are flourishing and increasingly popular among Japanese Catholics now said to be more than one million. Statistics given recently by the Japanese Bishops’ Conference put the number of Catholics in Japan as 450,000 Japanese and 565,000 foreign Catholic residents.
One popular site “Place of Prayer”, sponsored by Catholics in Tokyo, offers every day a different passage of the Scripture, a comment and a prayer. The over 12 million visits registered show that many people connect up every day and surf the site which offers visitors a chance to read the Gospels and meditate on the writings of the Saints. Since the death of Pope John Paul II these Catholic web sites have published prayers and messages about him and about the election of the next Pope. The presence of two Japanese Cardinals in the Conclave in Rome presently electing the next successor of Peter, Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, President of the Pontifical Council for the pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and Cardinal Peter Shirayanagi, emeritus Archbishop of Tokyo, make the local Church feel directly involved in the election. People in Japan are praying that the new Pope will be a Good Shepherd with concern for the little Churches of Asia.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/4/2005 righe 25 parole 266)
