Franciscan Chapel Center in Tokyo
creates a missionary spirit
By Bro. Octavio Duran, OFM
Article published on the Winter 2010 Anthonian Magazine
Just before sunrise in Tokyo, one of the most crowded cities of the world, Manina Callejas de Daireaux stops at the Franciscan Chapel Center to pick up bags of onigiri (rice cakes) to feed homeless people. Manina, a native of Nicaragua, moved to Japan’s capital city almost a year ago when her husband Carlos Alfredo Daireaux, an executive of a British international company was transferred from Poland to Japan. “My husband and I have lived in nine different countries since we were married, and I have always been moved by the suffering of the people,” says Manina, a mother of three. With many other foreigners, she and her husband worship at the Franciscan Chapel Center (FCC), the English-speaking Roman Catholic parish of the Archdiocese of Tokyo. “Here our priests keep reminding us that acting is as important as praying. That’s why I volunteered for the rice ministry.” On the 15-minute ride from the FCC in the Roppongi area to Shiyuba Park, where many of the homeless live, Manina shares her excitement as a parishioner of the FCC. “It doesn’t matter where you come from, the friars welcome you and invite you to get involved in one of the parish ministries,” she says.
At the park, a Japanese man who always dresses in white sports pants and jacket and is known to the volunteers as Masa-san, picks up the bags of rice cakes. He brings them to a nearby bridge, where he distributes them to the men and women waiting in line. When the last person has been served, Masa-san, goes around the park and places whatever rice cakes are left over beside the blue tarp makeshift shelters of the homeless, who did not make it to the line.
“I know what it is like to be homeless,” says Masa-san,who in his younger years became a national champion boxer. He won titles and money, but outside the ring, fame and alcohol knocked him out. After rehabilitation and off the streets, Masa-san joined a Christian church and committed himself to this ministry. He often expresses his appreciation for the FCC volunteers, who provide the first meal of the day for the homeless.The FCC’s rice ministry began in 1986, when Father William DeBiase, OFM, then pastor of the church, became aware of the many homeless and hungry Japanese. The Franciscan missionary from Holy Name Province organized volunteers to make and take onigiris to people living on the streets.
(Fr. William continues his ministry to the homeless at St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen for the poor in the Kensington district of Philadelphia.)Katherine Hall, an attorney and mother from the U.S. who coordinates the rice ministry, reports, “Donations from parishioners and other concerned groups fund our work. We are reaching about 300 homeless men and women, but the number keeps growing.” She notes that the rice ministers include, not only Catholics, but people from the other Christian churches, plus service-minded high school students and one team of young men and women who are Mormon missionaries to Japan.
“God has given us the grace to serve our brothers and sisters by providing them their daily needs,” says Terry White, an active volunteer who coordinates the delivery. The former soldier and diplomat, originally from Australia has lived in Japan at least 24 years. “It’s very easy to get distracted here in Tokyo, but this community ministry allows us to interact with one another in this transit community. I could not imagine not doing this,” says White, who also volunteers as lector and as a greeter.
Father Russell Becker, OFM, the FCC’s new pastor, encourages all involved in helping the poor. “This ministry,” the pastor says, “restores visibility to those who have been invisible to so many. The volunteers surely help people to know the Lord who fed the multitudes. Through the witness of our outreach ministers, our Franciscan Chapel Center is contributing to the evangelization of Japan.”Fr. Russell, former director of the Franciscan Missionary Union of Holy Name Province and a contributing writer for this magazine, became the tenth pastor of the FCC in August of this year. The friar from Buffalo, N.Y., enjoys the Chapel Center’s multi-cultural experience, involving English-speaking Catholics from all five continents, including English-speaking Japanese Catholics, who are attracted to the parish because of its community spirit. The many English-speaking priests who visit or volunteer their services at the center throughout the year enhance the multi-cultural experience. Father William Grimm, a Maryknoll missionary and journalist in Japan, has been celebrating one of the six weekend Masses at the center for the past six years.
When it comes to the history of the Catholic Church in Japan, Fr. Russell can rely on the veteran missionaries from Holy Name Province–Fathers Donnon Murray, OFM, who is 79, Callistus Sweeney, OFM, 82, and Bede Fitzpatrick, OFM, 88–who also live with him at the center. All three have served in Japan for over 50 years.Sensing the need for a place where English-speaking Catholics could worship together, two U.S. Franciscan Provinces worked out a cooperative agreement. Father Sigfrid Schneider, OFM, from St. John the Baptist Province in Cincinnati, initiated the center project, and Holy Name Province (HNP) agreed to staff it.
In 1967, HNP assigned Fr. Bede to open the center in the Roppongi district, where most of the foreign embassies are located. Fr. Bede, from Ellic
ottville, N.Y., has been serving in Japan since 1958.Fr. Donnon, a native of Olyphant, Pa., also came to Japan in 1958 and served in anumber of parishes before being assigned to the FCC in 1987. The friar has been working with Japanese Catholic couples on Marriage Encounter-type programs and traveling worldwide to conduct retreats and workshops to promote better marriages. “My husband and I wonder what type of family we would be if we had not met Fr. Donnon,” says Takashi Otani, as she recalls their retreat with the friar. “
We surely had been a happy family until then but totally unaware of how much more a family can grow in love.”Fr. Callistus, the FCC’s previous pastor, has been serving in Japan since 1958. “It amazes me,” says the friar from Binghamton, N.Y., “the desire that people have to know Jesus Christ, once they are introduced to him.” He points to the center’s Alpha program which invites people to consider Christianity or, if they are lapsed Catholics, to return home, and the Omega program for those interested in more fully reflecting on Sacred Scripture and the Church’s social teaching.
Fr. Bede wondered when he was assigned as rector of the FCC what might have happened to his missionary vocation since now he was at the English-speaking church. He thought he could have done that back in the United States. He soon realized he was not just ministering to the English-speakers, but was still fulfilling his call to evangelize Japan, but also empowering the parishioners with a true missionary spirit. It was a truly blessed fulfillment of his call to preach the good news to the ends of the earth.The FCC is truly a welcome home for anyone who comes to Tokyo either for work or on a vacation, they are always happy to find it. Sunday after Sunday, week after week, the community gathers from just about everywhere to give thanks to God and to rededicate themselves to the service of God in their brothers and sisters–a community of missionaries proclaiming the good news and helping all to know that God is in our midst.“I was very impressed with the dedication of our friars, the simplicity of their lifestyle and the depth of their ministry, “ says provincial minister Father John O’Connor, OFM who visited the mission last February. “I witnessed the results of the sacrifices that they made over the many years that they have been in Japan. They are loved and very much appreciated by the people.” Since returning to the US, Fr. John has come to learn that the FCC is well known among Americans who spent time in Japan, either on business or vacation.