　さて、この手紙の目的は鹿児島の新カテドラルについての情報を提供することにあります。司教様は司祭たちが全員一致してこのような建造物に賛成したとおっしゃいますが、それは事実ではありません。問題は御聖体に対する尊敬が皆無であるところにあります。御聖体を安置してある小聖堂は一階にあり、別棟になっています。位置的にそれは公衆トイレでなければ、受付の部屋といったところです。その床は全面平らで聖域との区切りがないので、見物客たちは自由に歩き回って、聖櫃に触れたり、大声でおしゃべりをしたり、告解部屋の戸を開けて「あんたもここで懺悔の練習したら？」などと冗談を言っていました。これはわたしがそこでミサをする前に祈っている最中に起きたことです。その都度注意をしましたが、だれもそこにいなければもっとひどい不敬、涜聖があっても不思議ではありません。御聖体はもっと大事にされるべきです。それなのに御聖体は無防備です。

　神学校時代に習ったのは教会の建物は信徒を教育するということでした。御聖体の代わりに、御聖体を追い出してしまった司教様が真ん中の高いところに座られます。ですから、その司教様の方を向いて信徒が腰掛けると、御聖体はどこにあるのでしょうか？　御聖体は彼等の後ろ、建物の外、彼等の下、彼等より低い位置にあります。このような建造物から信徒が受ける教育はどういうことになるでしょうか？　「御聖体よりも人間の方が大事！」あるべき秩序が逆さまになることを革命と言いますが、これは正に革命ではありませんか？　

　わたしたちと共におられる神である御聖体には、最高の敬意が払われなければなりません。準備検討段階では多目的ホールなどと言われていたのに、今では「聖堂」と呼ばれているこのホールでは沈黙を守ることが要請されています。しかし、何のための沈黙でしょうか？　祈っている隣人の邪魔にならないためであれば、その隣人は一体何に祈っているのでしょうか？　九月十五日の祝別式ではこの多目的ホールも祝別されましたが、祝別ということは、その場所を神の礼拝と礼拝に密接に関連する行事のために使用するという人間側の意思表示とか約束ではなかったのでしょうか？　「市民のために開かれた教会」という言葉を口にされた司教様は、祝別ミサの終わりに御聖体を下の小聖堂に移してしまわれました。ある参加者は御聖体がご自分の家から追い出されたとさえ言って嘆いています。何と悲しいことでしょう。ある裕福な信者ですが、自分の気に入る聖堂が建つのを確認してから寄付をさせていただくと言っていましたが、結局このような聖堂には寄付できないと打ち明けてくれました。お喜び下さい。このように骨のあるカトリック信者はまだでも残っています。残念なことに、一致の象徴であるべきカテドラルは分裂の象徴とさえなりました。

　ある信徒の報告によれば、香部屋にはもう一つ鍵がかかった小さな部屋があって、聖櫃があるそうです。御聖体ランプはついていません。もし御聖体がそこに安置されているのであれば、壁とか戸の向こうにある御聖体を信徒は礼拝しないことになります。また、そこに御聖体がないのに信徒がその方角を向いて祈れば、御聖体でなく壁とか戸を拝む偶像崇拝をすることになります。

　それでも、わたしは希望を捨てたわけではありません。次の司教様が御聖体を現在司教様の座られるところに昇格なさることを期待できるからです。今御聖体が安置されている小聖堂は現在の司教様のお墓にすればいいと思います。そうすれば死者が復活したときに、司教様はご自分の間違いにすぐ気がつかれるからです。

Allow me to send you this sudden mail. I am Father John A. Nariai, priest of Kagoshima Diocese which you will visit in a few days. We are honored to receive you here, not only because in your person the Holy Father is represented, but also you are a Prince of the Church. As such, you will be willing and are able to defend and promote the orthodoxy of our beloved Catholic Church whenever and wherever possible.

I want you to know that there are some priests here who objected to and are not happy with our newly built cathedral commemorating the 450th Anniversary of St. Francis Xavier's arrival at Kagoshima. The Most Rev. Paul S. Itonaga, our bishop, claims that there was consensus of all the priests here but it is far from the truth. The problem with it is that the Blessed Sacrament is not honored enough, if not at all. The chapel for the Blessed Sacrament is on the ground floor at the entrance in a separate building. This small chapel is in my opinion like the house of the gate-keeper or receptionist, if not a public toilet. The floor is flat from wall to wall, and tourists have been seen walking all over the place even touching the tabernacle, chatting to each other in a loud voice, joking about confessing sins as practice in the confessional, etc. All these happened while I was praying there waiting for my congregation to arrive. I offer mass for the foreigners' community in that small chapel on Sundays. Imagine that when nobody is there, all kinds of abuse and disrespect may take place in such a structure. Behind two closed doors, something far worse and even blasphemous can take place very easily. What is holy should be treated as such. Due precautions should be taken but nothing is done. The Eucharist is defenseless.

In the seminary I learned that the edifice of the church is and should be educative. Instead of the Blessed Sacrament, the bishop sits high up in front of the main hall on the second floor. So, when the failthful are seated there, where is the Blessed Sacrament? In their back, outside the building, below them, lower than they. What education do people receive from such a structure? "Men are more important than God!" The reversion of the right order is a revolution. God with us, the Eucharist, should be given a place of the highest honor. In the planning stage the main hall was called the multi-purpose hall. Now it is called "seido" meaning chapel or church. The faithful are requested to keep silence in this multi-purpose hall, but there is nothing that demands silence except that one might not disturb others that are praying, but praying to what? At the dedication ceremony this hall was duly consecrated. However, consecration means that this part of the building will be used only for divine worship or matters closely related to it. Multi-purpose surely would mean more than that. Our bishop declared during the dedication ceremony that the hall would be open to the citizens of Kagoshima, and at the end of the dedication mass he took, if not kicked out, the Blessed Sacrament to the outer chapel (These are the words of the participants). I assure you that many Catholics here are complaining and even weeping. How sad! It is the sentiment of quite a few Catholics here. One company president, a rich man, confided to me that he had withheld his donation to this building until completion to see if he would be satisfied. He was not pleased at all and did not donate. Be happy there are such Catholics who still hold an orthodox faith. Regrettably the sign of unity has become the sign of division!

For convenience' sake, there is another tabernacle by the sacristy which may be used habitually to keep the left-over Blessed Sacrament after mass. Maybe because the priest there is too embarassed to confine and lock up Jesus in such an obscure place, there is no Eucharistic lamp indicating the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. If the Blessed Sacrament is placed in this tabernacle the faithful would not be worshipping the Lord beyond the wall in that obscure corner, and if that tabernacle is empty, the faithful would be worshipping the wall instead of the Lord. Worshipping and praying to the wall is idolatry.

Well, I am not too pessimistic, because hopefully our next bishop will promote the Blessed Sacrament where our present bishop sits, and convert the present Eucharisticchapel into a book store or something, if not the cemetery for the bishop, so that he may realize he had made a terrible mistake the moment he rises from the dead. Hopefully we will not have to wait that long before the bishop realizes his mistake by your kind advice.

Humanae Vitae Research Institute
26 Chuocho, Tarumizushi 891-2106 Japan
E-Mail janariai@po.synapse.ne.jp
Home Page http://hvri.catholic.ac./