Pope Francis announced Wednesday he will visit
Japan in November, becoming the first pontiff to
do so since John Paul II nearly 40 years ago.
“I will go to Japan in November,†he said on
board the Papal plane bringing him to Panama for
a gathering of young Catholics.
The Argentine pontiff has repeatedly voiced a
desire to visit Japan, home to some 450,000
Roman Catholics, including most recently in
September last year.
Around 510,000 Protestants live in the largely
Shinto Buddhist country, according to Japan’s
Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Francis had wanted to work as a missionary there
in his youth but abandoned the plan after a lung
operation.
The pope has made two trips to Asia since his
election five years ago, visiting the Philippines and
Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and
Bangladesh last year.
In January of last year, Francis issued a
harrowing photograph taken in 1945 showing a
young Japanese boy carrying his dead brother.
The child, carried on the boy’s back, was killed
when the United States dropped a nuclear bomb
on Nagasaki.
Francis, who has often spoken of the dangers of
nuclear weapons, had written on the back of the
image just four words: “The fruit of warâ€.
Pope John Paul II visited Japan in 1981.
Source:
www.channelstv.com/2019/01/23/pope-
francis-fixes-japan-visit-for-november/
