Bishop Taiji Katsuya's pastoral track took unexpected turn
Bishop Taiji Katsuya, 61, has headed the diocese of Sapporo, Japan, since his appointment by Pope Francis in 2013. Katsuya is also chair of the Japan Catholic Council for Justice and Peace. Writer David DeCosse spoke with him at the Tokyo headquarters of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan Nov. 10. Translation from Japanese to English was provided by Shino Akiyama of the bishops' conference.
by David DeCosse | Dec. 5, 2016
DeCosse: Please tell us about your youth.
Katsuya: I was born and raised in Hokkaido in northern Japan. I was not raised as a Christian. My mother died when I was young. My father became a Buddhist monk but he didn't have a temple or anything. But he studied hard and earned the qualification. My father would always pray to the Buddhist statue in our house. Buddhist prayers were always around my home environment and were close to me and I took that in. But I was not really influenced by a Buddhist discipline and way of life.
When I was a junior in high school, I had a very deep experience inside my heart. I learned to pray and I had a chance to enter into a Catholic world. The Catholic church in Hokkaido every year did a mailing of pamphlets to residents in the area. Our house received one but my father had thrown it into the garbage can. I came across the pamphlet in the garbage can and it inspired me and I answered and began talking with people at the church.
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That year, only three people responded to the mailing. I was one and I was interested. But there were two others, who told the church, "Stop sending these mailings to us!" Two or three years later, the church stopped the mailings because they were having such little effect.
Could you also tell us about becoming a priest and a bishop?
When I was baptized, I was 18 years old. I had already thought by then about being a priest. he priest who led the formation program said that if one could not communicate deeply and personally with a woman, then one did not have a priestly vocation. I understood that this was a different way of approaching a vocation. And so I thought, "I have to get a girlfriend!"
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