Monday, June 30, 2025

Popular News

HomeNewsAsiaCardinal Hollerich: ‘the faith of Catholics in Nagasaki moved me deeply'

Cardinal Hollerich: ‘the faith of Catholics in Nagasaki moved me deeply’

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich is deeply tied to the Land of the Rising Sun. He speaks of his experience in Nagasaki where he was deeply touched by the faith of many Catholics there.

By Linda Bordoni

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg and President of COMECE,  the Brussels-based commission representing Europe’s Catholic bishops  spent over two decades in Japan, first as a Jesuit novice, and then as Rector of Sophia University in Tokyo.

He has particularly poignant memories of his time in Nagasaki where, he says, the people express a deep and tangible faith:Listen to Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich

“I love that city,” says Cardinal Hollerich, recalling that he did his Tertianship in Nagasaki for two summers in a row.

“I worked in a hospital on the floor for people who are dying. And that was for me a very important experience,” he says.

He says he came into contact there with old men and women who were dying, whose grandparents were hidden Christians in their childhood and they had passed on their deep faith to their families.

“I celebrated Mass in a room where a man was dying,” Hollerich recalls, “He was very much awake and taking part in the ceremony. And the whole family was in the corridor kneeling throughout the whole Mass”.

You cannot but feel very touched, he concludes, by the manifestation of such faith.   

Popular News

Syria: Suicide bombing at Orthodox Church in Damascus

A suicide bomber has killed at least 20 people attending the Divine Liturgy at...

Church in Seoul urges end to hostility, marks progress in inter-Korean relations

The Archdiocese of Seoul has reaffirmed its commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula...

Pope Leo XIV echoes the cry of Francis: War is always a defeat!

Warning that the “atrocity” of modern scientific weapons risks leading combatants “to barbarism far...

Church in Myanmar warns of civilian suffering, thanks Pope for support

Catholic leaders in Myanmar have welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s renewed appeal for peace, as...