Shikoku, Apostolic Prefecture of

SHIKOKU, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. - Situated on the island of the same name, it comprises four civil provinces, namely Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi and Ehime, whose total area is 18,250 sq. km., with a population of 4,219,044 inhabitants, for the most part Buddhists and Shintoists. It was erected on 27 Jan. 1904, by detachment from the diocese of Osaka.

The beginnings of evangelization on the island of S. go back to the 16th century and are due to certain Jesuit fathers. Among them worthy of mention is Fr. Francesco Cabral, who, in 1575, converted the daimyo of Tosa. This mission too had its martyrs, among them St. Paul Miki, martyred in 1597. The Dominicans of the province of the Most Holy Rosary in the Philippines began their work in S. in 1903 and retained the mission until 30 Nov. 1950, when it passed to the Japanese secular clergy, with the appointment of an apostolic administrator.

In 1949 the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, of American nationality, arrived there. The island of S., for the purposes of missionary activity, is divided into three forane vicariates, namely Kagawa entrusted to the secular clergy; Kochi-Tokushima to the missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Ehime to the Dominicans. To the two groups of foreign missionaries there were added at the end of 1951 certain priests of the Spanish Institute of St. Francis Xavier of Burgos, who carry out their ministry in the district of Marugame, in the province of Kagawa. The island of S., an eminently Buddhist region, has as many as 88 Buddhist temples, where the Japanese people, before the war, made their pilgrimages. In the postwar period, however, the moral force of both Buddhism and Shintoism seems weakened among the people.

There are 1300 Catholics; 3000 Protestants and 100 schismatics. The priests number 23, of whom 4 are native. There is no Seminary, but the young men are sent to the minor Seminary of Osaka and the major Seminary of Tokyo. There are 15 Dominican sisters and 4 Japanese sisters, Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; 5 catechists and 20 teachers; 1 middle school; 1 orphanage; 5 kindergartens; 10 churches; 10 quasi-parishes.

Edoardo Pecoraio