By Fr. Joseph Brooder, mssc

By the time I got to Japan twenty-five years ago, ecumenism was very strong. But it had not always been that way. One Protestant minister told me that when Father Pat Diamond sent an invitation to all the Protestant ministers in the City of Kumamoto to attend the opening of the new hall in Tetori parish, they got together to discuss whether it would be safe to attend or not. They prayed about it, but decided to risk death and attend. The rest is history.

They where bowled over by the reception they got, met priests whom they found to be normal after all, and had a great party. “We discovered that Catholics really do believe in Christ,” said one of the ministers. That was the beginning of different churches working together in Kumamoto. Perhaps Father Pat Diamond did more for ecumenism there by that invitation than did Vatican II. Since then every Christmas Catholic and Protestant churches hire out the local threatre to hold a Christmas pageant. Catholic and Protestant schools stage the nativity in drama. On alternate years, the guest speaker is Catholic or Protestant.

When I first arrived in Kumamoto City I joined the ecumenical weekly meeting in a YMCA hall. It was held on Monday mornings between 6:30 and 7:30 am. The first half was spiritual – hymns, prayers and a short homily – and the second half was a simple breakfast. About thirty used to attend, mostly Protestants. I must admit. The zealous Catholics preferred to attend the 6:30 Mass in the local convent.

As a newcomer, I was soon asked to lead the first half of the ecumenical meeting the following week as I was new, I decided to be both spiritually, biblically and politically correct.

“Fellow Christians and fellow heretics,” I began my talk, and received a thundering ovation.

“To us, you’re the heretic,” one minister quipped. From then on, we became the best of friends. When shopping, they used to park in our church grounds, and they used to borrow the hall for various events. When the YMCA hall went under repairs, the morning breakfast meeting moved into the Catholic church, where it still continues without a break every Monday morning.

They were a great group. The greatest of them all (apart from myself) was Mr. Horihara, an octogenarian from a Protestant church. He was the backbone of the ecumenical movement. His cry was “I protest nothing, I believe everything the Catholic church teaches. I believe in the Pope. I didn’t choose between Protestantism and Catholicism. When as young man I was disillusioned with life, I decided to become a Christian. I went to the first church I saw. It happened to be a Protestant church. There I met Christ, there I was baptized, there I now worship.”

When asked why he didn’t convert to Catholicism he replied “I could become a Catholic in the morning. I took lessons from Father Jim Norris; I have no difficulties with the Catholic teaching. I don’t just want to save my own life. I stayed in the Protestant church so that I could work on them to become more Catholic. If they all decided to become Catholics, then I’ll be in front leading them as they enter. My wish is that all Protestants attend the Catholic Mass, receive Holy Communion there and be united with Peter, the Pope.”

His ardent sincerity made a great impression on both Catholics and Protestants. At times his enthusiasm was hard to keep up with. He thought o could do miracles. He used to annoy some Protestants by quoting me too much – usually what he thought I should have said, rather than what I did say.

As he grow near ninety, still alert and agile, he, he announced that that he wanted his wake celebrated before he died. “What is the use of all those eulogies when I am dead when I can’t hear what you are saying about me? Tell me when I am alive.” Nobody would listen to him. His family was embarrassed.

At funeral in Japan, eulogies are very important. When his wife died a few years earlier, after listening for a while to many eulogies about “the wife of the well-known Mr. Horihara,” he stormed the microphone and said, “Why praise me? it is my wife who is dead. Praise her.”

He came to me and asked me to do his wake in my church while he was alive. I told him he was crazy and that he should let us have our say when he did die. My refusal disappointed him, I think. But he declared openly that he wanted his funeral to be organized from the Catholic Church.

He knew death was coming but still worked tirelessly for Christian unity. One day he set out with his daughter to visit the graves of his ancestors. It was a long trip. He visited the graves, booked into a hotel, had a hot bath and went to bed. He woke up dead the next morning.

His death caused a great shock in the Christian Community. The family explained to me how he wanted a Catholic funeral, but that this had upset his Protestant Community. I told them to have the whole ceremony in his church as they were the family he lived and died in. They where happy with this. A week later his whole family came to Mass offered for the repose of his soul – it was the first Mass they had ever attended. And they were delighted.

The spirit of Mr. Horihara lives on. The ecumenical meetings still carry on. It is powerful seeing Christians working in unity together; it is like the oil that runs down the beard of Aaron, as the Bible says. His words I” did not choose between Protestantism and Catholicism – I choose Christ” will long remain with me. He died with no regret – that all did not join the Catholic Church. Maybe not in body, but certainly in spirit we joined each other in Christ.