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Japan: Cyberspace to meet challenge of evangelisation Print E-mail
Written by CISA   
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Bishops and various congregations of women religious are using the internet to keep the faithful informed about activities in their dioceses and stay in touch with those who live faraway.

Asianews reports that blogs have allowed some to discover the Catholic faith and become baptised.

Mgr Kenjiro Koriyama, the 64-year-old bishop of Kagoshima, is among the internet’s pioneers. He has been online since the 1990s and from a pastoral point of view the results have been satisfactory. His blog or online diary, 24-hourBishop@Ken'sPage, is updated almost every day.

“I heard that between 50 and 60 thousand young people were surfing the internet at night, so the Web is a kind of spider web. I began to upload my Sunday homilies and thought it would be good if some young people were caught in that web,” he said.

In his Bishop's Diary, Mgr Isao Kikuchi, 48, is less adroit with technology: he can’t upload photos. This is why “I don’t have any cover photo. But I do try to answer all messages that arrive and day in, day out, they help me understand people’s varied nature.”

For the Daughters of St Paul, internet “is useful to make more people known about Christianity and keep in touch with those we know but who are faraway.”

Sister Tanako Ono, 49, who manages the Daughters of Saint Paul’s Sister's Mutterings’ blog, said that “the blog is a new form of communication that cannot be ignored. We must keep up with society.”

The same is true for Sister Shimokama, who works for the Diocese of Nagasaki. She manages the Todo no inori (prayer of the sea lion) blog in which she focuses on her activities and those of the diocese. Thanks to the internet she has been able to know new people and introduce them to Christianity.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 March 2007 )