Japan's 'hidden Christian' sites are living witness of faith, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians in Japan should keep alive the memory of the persecution their ancestors endured for their faith and should also pray for Christians suffering persecution around the world today, Pope Francis said.

"When we think of the heroism of the early missionaries, the courage of the Japanese martyrs and the perseverance of your country's small but faithful Catholic community down through the centuries, how can we not think of our fellow Christians who in our own day are enduring persecution and even death for the name of Jesus?" the pope said.

Meeting Nov. 30 with members of the Hidden Christians Research Association, the pope led them in praying for persecuted Christians "and for all those who suffer the bitter fruits of war, violence, hatred and oppression."

The meeting took place just days before the Dec. 3 feast of St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary who brought Christianity to Japan in the mid-1500s. The Christian community he founded in Nagasaki was particularly strong and the faith spread there until it was outlawed under the Edo shogunate in 1614.

Christians who were not killed or did not deny their faith began living it clandestinely, quietly passing it from one generation to the next. When the ban on Christianity was lifted in 1873, missionaries were shocked to discover how large the Christian community was.

Pope Francis thanked members of the association for their efforts to preserve the sites related to the clandestine communities "as a precious witness to a great but hidden chapter in the history of the universal church and in the history of your noble people."

Following UNESCO's decision to put 12 sites connected to hidden Christians in the Nagasaki area on the World Heritage List, the pope said that he hoped that they not only would be preserved but "also serve as a living testimony to the fidelity of so many Japanese Christians who passed on the precious treasure of the faith as a legacy from generation to generation."