The grief of Japan

“The images of the tragic earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan have deeply shocked us all”, said Benedict XVI, after the Angelus on Sunday 13 March, referring to the dramatic situation with which Japan is faced at the present time. “I wish – he declared – to renew my spiritual closeness to the beloved populations of that country, who are coming to grips with the consequences of these calamities with dignity and courage”. “I pray – added the Pope – for the victims and their families, and for all those who are suffering as a result of these tremendous events. I encourage all those who, with commendable promptitude, are devoting themselves to bringing emergency aid. Let us remain united in prayer. The Lord is close to us!”. Expressions of solidarity and prayer have also come from various European episcopates.France and England. In France prayers are being devoted to the stricken peoples of Japan, while in England Catholic communities are trying to reflect and give a religious meaning to the grief caused by the apparent randomness of natural disasters. The Bishops’ Conferences of the two countries are reacting to the disaster caused by the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan. “Profoundly moved” by what Japan is experiencing, Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris and President of the French Bishops’ Conference, had invited Catholics, on the day after the disaster, to participate in a mass for the victims and the Japanese people in the cathedral of Notre-Dame. Some 3,000 faithful responded to the invitation; they followed the celebration in deep silence, thronging the nave and aisles of the cathedral. In England, the Bishops’ Conference asked the Jesuit James Hanvey to reply in mp3 to a series of questions about human suffering. Faced by the images being transmitted from Japan “on the impact of the earthquake and the tsunami on the population”, “many people are asking: how can a God of love permit such suffering, permit such natural disasters to happen”. The Jesuit replied that “it is legitimate to pose the question whether you believe in God” but it is just on occasions like this that you need to “make a decision” and the fact of “continuing to believe, in spite of everything, in God”, “does not exempt man from experiencing suffering”.Austria and Germany. The earthquake and the tsunami aroused participation and condolence also in the Catholic world in the German-speaking countries. The President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, expressed his own solidarity in a press release. “I have learned with deep emotion of the terrible earthquake and the tsunami it has caused in your country”, wrote Archbishop Zollitsch in a letter to the Archbishop of Tokyo, Peter Takeo Okada, President of the Japanese Bishops’ Conference. Mgr. Zollitsch expressed his condolence for the victims, and assured prayers for the injured and their families. “In the weeks and months ahead, the survivors will have urgent need of our generous and brotherly help”, continued Mgr. Zollitsch: “I am asking the faithful of our country to support your Church and those struck by the catastrophe with prayers and also with financial resources, trying, as far as possible, to mitigate the state of dire need after the disaster”. In Austria, the Day of Liturgical Services, held in Vienna on 12 March in the presence of over 1,400 volunteers of the three vicariates of the capital, and presided over by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, opened with prayer for and commemoration of the victims of the earthquake.Ireland. Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, issued a press release on 12 March calling for prayers for the people of Japan at Masses celebrated in Irish parishes. Cardinal Brady said: “I convey my deepest sympathies to the people of Japan […]. I ask the faithful to remember the people of Japan in their prayers and at Masses this weekend. Let us also pray for the human lives that perished and for those that have been injured and displaced by these incredibly powerful acts of nature”. Cardinal Brady concluded: “I encourage everyone, through prayer and friendship, to express solidarity with the Japanese community living here in Ireland”.