Unless I attended some as an infant or toddler that I don’t recall (I was born in 1967), I’ve only been to one Traditional Latin Mass in my life, as I described here. I wish I could attend the Latin Mass regularly as well as introduce my wife to it. She converted to Catholicism about…
On May 13, Steve Skojec issued a call for submissions detailing a “positive development” showing how “grace is at work in building up the Mystical Body of Christ” in the midst of (among other “demoralizing” events) the COVID epidemic. Here is how one man – namely me – has in the past year been taken…
My Open Letter of Application for Catholic College Chancellorship: To the powers-that-be on campus: Good morning! I am writing to you to humbly request consideration to be hired as your new Chancellor (or whatever you call the “top job” on campus) at your officially-but-not-actually Catholic institution of higher learning. My formal qualifications for such a…
I’m not planning on dying any time soon. I’m nearly 53 years old, and life expectancy statistics tell me that I have at least another 20 to 25 years left on this Earth. And research shows that people of faith tend to be healthier and live longer than those who don’t — about seven years…
I’m often asked about the state of Catholicism in Japan and about being a Catholic expat in Japan in particular. I thought this might be a good time to write about it, given that Japan might be on a lot of Catholics’ minds with Pope Francis having just wrapped up the first papal visit to…
Dear Father N., Thank you for coming across town from your parish to ours to celebrate Mass for us as often as you do. As one of the few parish members (if not the only one) who doesn’t speak Japanese as a first language, I very much appreciate your written English translations of your homilies.…
As I write this piece, I am wearing around my neck my St. Francis Xavier medal. I wear it almost always. At home, at work, at Mass, even while working out at the gym or playing hockey, it is always there near my heart, literally. While I admire and venerate all the saints, Francis is…
Until just a few weeks ago, I knew precious little about my mother’s side of the family. She passed away young, when she was 39 and I was 10; that was in the late 1970s. Other than her sister, who moved out to California not long after my mother’s death, I don’t remember ever meeting…
In my 21 years in Japan, I have attended three funerals. The first, for my wife’s godmother, was a Catholic one, while the other two were not. As my wife is Japanese and is the only Catholic in her family (she converted in her mid-twenties), whenever there is a death in her family, the funeral…
Editor’s note: The following is not the position of 1P5, but we submit the author’s opinion to help inform discussion on the question of the always troublesome (these days) Jesuits. As we lament their present state, it is worthwhile to consider their illustrious past. Merely saying the word “Jesuit” will likely cause a frown in…
Whatever qualifies as a “Christian country” these days, Japan would not likely be seen as one in anyone’s mind. Only 1% of the Japanese population, split evenly between Catholics and Protestants along with small pockets of Eastern Orthodoxy, claim to be believers in Christ. Yet the fact that Christ is worshiped here by anyone at…
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