Hiroshima, Apostolic Vicariate of

HIROSHIMA, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - In Japan, on the island of Honshū. It was erected by apostolic brief of 2 May 1923 and entrusted to the German-speaking fathers of the Society of Jesus. At the time of its establishment, in the eight stations that composed it there were the missionaries of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, who had been carrying out their ministry there for more than forty years.

The first evangelical seed in this mission was sown by St. Francis Xavier (v.) himself, who for a time fixed his residence in the city of H., laying there the foundations of missionary activity, inherited for many years by other fathers of the same Society of Jesus. In the persecution of the 17th century many of the faithful in the region of H., as at Nagasaki, gave their blood for the Catholic faith; among them St. James Kizaemon, a Japanese, stands out. The vicariate of H. has suffered very grave damage because of the recent war. But now it shows certain signs of good and constant progress. The mentality of the people, which before the war was notable for a rigid conservatism, now appears much changed and in a direction favorable to the work of the missionaries. The number of the baptized and of the catechumens has increased. Whereas before the war 80 or 90 baptisms were counted in a year, recently 700 have been reached. The reconstruction of churches and charitable works is proceeding rapidly. The vicariate of H. comprises five civil prefectures: Yamaguchi, H., Okayama, Shimane, Tottori, with a total area of 31,672 sq km. The number of Catholics is 3,316 with 927 catechumens; there are 26 priests with 6 coadjutor brothers, 4 native seminarians, 46 sisters both native and foreign, 3 orphanages with 165 children, 1 school of music with 280 students, 1 higher school with 420 girls, a middle school with 667 girls, 1 vocational school with 59 pupils. There is also an institute of culture, intended to spread Christian ideas among the educated classes.

Edoardo Pecorsio