A SECRET RELIGION IN JAPAN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 69, 22 August 1874, Page 8

A SECRET RELIGION IN JAPAN.

Ihe Rev. Father Walwortb, who is now travelling in the East, writes to Father Hewitt, C. S. P., an interesting letter from Japan, published in the Catholic Eeflector,' from which we take the following :— " It was, however, in the Southern partß of Japan that St. Francis Xavier and the missionaries -who followed his footsteps had succeeded best in the establishment of the Catholic faith, and there it is one would most naturally look for any remaining evidences of their work Curing a visit to Mgr. Petitjean to Nagasaki in 1864, he saw one day in the mission church an old Japanese woman, who was praying beneath a statue of the Blessed Virgin. Something peculiar in her manner attracted his attention, and on enquiring he discovered that she did not belong to Nagasaki, and was not known to any of the missionaries. She seemed to be Afraid to be spoken to, and answered questions with great reluctance. On being pressed she acknowledged that she had a religion which was not like the religion of the country. Holy men had taught it in the land, she said, long, long ago, but these men where all dead and gone, and there were no teachers of her religion left. Being confident that she was a Catholic, and one that derived her faith from the old plantation, the Bishop endeavored to assure her. He told her that he knew all about these early teachers, that he himself was a priest; of the same religion, and that he and others like him had come to preach that religion once more, and establish fehe old worship again amongst them. It was not until she had catechized • 'iV^ 7 closel y thafc she B ave him f uU confidence, and became satisfied that she was in a true Catholic Church, and in the presence of a real priest. She then acknowledged openly that she was a Christian, and said that the neighboring islands were full of others like herself who held to that faith, though secretly and in constant fear of persecution. She had heard of the arrival of strange missionaries at Nagasaki, and had come there, though with great fear and caution, to see if perhaps they were not like those who had brought the faith to ' Japan three hundred years before. Joyfully now she returned home to announce the glad tidings to the rest. The missionaries soon found themselves surrounded by a multitude of native Christians, very ignorant indeed of many thing 3 belonging to their religion, but nevertheless clinging to it most firmly and affectionately. About twelve thousand of these have thus far reported themselves in the small islands near Nagasaki. But unhappily the enthusiasm with -which they crowded to welcome the Fathers, aroused the attention of the Japanese government, aud gave rise to a new persecution. Great numbers of the native Christians were arrested and imprisoned. They could no longer come to Nagasaki without punishment, nor were the Fathers allowed to visit them at their houses. It is supposed that at least sixty thousand more Catholics are in Japan who are afraid to make themselves known. Without priests, without any authorised or qualified teachers, without any means of offering the Christian, sacrifice, or maintaining any public worship, without the succor and consolation of the sacraments, and all the while in constant dread and fear of persecution, is it not wonderful that this} poor, hunted and isolated band of believers should have maintained the Catholio faith for so many generations ? Only one sacrament was left to them— the sacrament of baptism, and this has been perpetuated amongst them by a class of men whom they call Baptizers who know what is requisite to valid baptism, and transmit the knowledge to others."