That They Maybe One

by Garry C. Gestoveo, cicm
(published in CICM JP Province Newsletter Shiki, Vol.7 No.2)


Apostleship of the Seas (AOS) Japan and AOS Incheon, South Korea held their first joint International Meeting November 10-12, 2009 in Incheon Diocese, Korea. Participants from both countries gathered together for three days to share on how to be able to work together and to respond to the needs of the seafarers who ply the seas of Asia.

Participants were warmly welcomed by Bishop Boniface Ki-San Choi, Bishop of Incheon and AOS Incheon Chaplain Fr. Juanito Jang You Sung, MSC. Fr. Romeo Yu Chang, CICM, East Asia and Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator delivered the message of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People that stressed the need to work together despite the differences in language, culture and situation in order to provide pastoral care for seafarers and their families. Bishop Tani Daiji, Bishop Promoter for AOS Japan, thanked the AOS Incheon for the wonderful event of being able to meet together. Japan and Korea churches have been working in many ways to promote friendship among Japanese and Korean Catholics. The meeting would be a good opportunity to strengthen the bond among AOS volunteers from both countries too.

Keynote speaker Fr. Romeo stressed that despite the language gap between Japan and Korea, there is one thing that binds their pastoral workers together and that is the passion, the yearning and the commitment to be able to serve to the people of the sea. Fr. Romeo also stressed that it is the language of love and hospitality that connects us all to the seafarers.

In order to understand the work of each national groups, a presentation about their AOS activities was done during the second day of the meeting. AOS Incheon traced the growth of their ministry by using the image of the rainbow. They highlighted the history and how they were able to deepen their sense of mission and being able to create an AOS community of volunteers committed to the people of the sea. Japan on the other hand, made a presentation based on "S-W-O-T analysis"[for strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities, threats]. Volunteers and chaplains from the different ports in Japan showed several opportunities in doing theri ministry despite the lack of resources and centers.

During the culminating mass, AOS Japan Bishop Promoter Bishop Tani and Incheon Diocese Bishop Boniface Ki-San Choi signed a resolution pledging cooperation between Japan and Korea AOS. Seeing the many volunteers from AOS Incheon who worked very hard to make us feel at home during the three-day meeting made us feel that the meeting was indeed a graced-filled event.

(Translated from Japanese article submitted by Fr. Masami Yamaguchi)

Ordination of Deacon Honoré Kabundi, cicm

by Antonius Harnoko

Honoré Kabundi was ordained deacon on March 6 at the church of Matsubara. It was the first time that an ordination was ever held there. Confreres from Kansai area, Okayama and Hiroshima came to Tokyo the day before. Many of Honoré’s friends also came. Several priests of nearby parishes and sisters of several congregations responded to our invitation as well. Including several faithful of Matsubara some 300 people come for his ordination.

The liturgy was executed solemnly and beautifully. In his homily, Auxiliary Bishop Jacob Koda addressed Honoré and the congregation in a very understandable language. What the Bishop Koda said that priests and bishops should remain a deacon will not be forgotten by those who heard him. After the ordination a simple party was held. The ambassador of the Republic Democratic of Congo proposed the toast. The party was over at 2:00 p.m., but some confreres and Honoré's compatriots continued to celebrate with him till night.

The success of Honoré’s ordination was indeed because of our Lord’s love and of the support from Matsubara's faithful. Without their helping hands before, during and after the celebration, this meaningful time will not be possible. From the bottom of our heart, we thank the preparatory committee of Matsubara church.

Congratulation to our new deacon, Honoré Kabundi, cicm.

JPIC corner(Shiki May-June 2009)
“Peace Maintenance”
The Celebration of Constitution Day in Himeji
by Ludo Goossens

The Harima (area) Meeting for Protection of the Constitution started its activities in 1979 in Himeji church and ever since it staged events to mark Japan’s Constitution Day every year. This time the organizers took the risk to rent the great hall of the Himeji City Cultural Center at a considerable expense. However, unexpectedly around 1,400 people who paid a \1,000 entrance ticket showed up on Saturday May 2 from noon on. In the lobby various exhibits were set up, a. o. colorful woodblock prints cunningly glorifying the military feats of the Imperial Army in China during the Meiji era, and war propaganda leaflets in newspaper format which were distributed in 1932 by the Himeji office of civil defense.

A straightforward man called me to his desk where he sold DVDs he had produced himself by editing all kinds of documentary materials related to World War II. He succeeded in convincing me in view of Mother’s Day to acquire Mubôbi Chiiki Sengen (Declaring a Locality as Defenseless), a DVD of 26 minutes featuring senator Yamauchi Tokunobu, the former mayor of Kunitachi Uehara, and bishop Matsuura who explain the history of outlawing war, the movement to create arms-free areas and the action to have towns refuse any collaboration with war, especially with military bases.

The program proper started with an ear-deafening percussion in Korean style. The 44 performers from Himeji were squatted in front of a huge reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica painting, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government for the Paris World Fair in July 1937, only five days after 28 bombers of the Nazi Luftwaffe indiscriminately bombed the cultural capital of the Basque people though it did not have any strategic value as military target. Moreover, some 20 Messerschmitt and Fiat fighter planes machine-gunned people out on the streets for the market day. The village burnt for three days. The raid destroyed 70% of the town and killed or gravely wounded 1,600 persons, mainly women and children. The all-out air attack was ordered on (Catholic) general Franco's behalf to break the spirited Basque resistance to Nationalist forces. Guernica served as a testing ground for the new Nazi military tactic - blanket-bombing a civilian population to demoralize the enemy. The carnage sparked a worldwide outrage and Picasso’s painting drew attention to the horrors of the Spanish civil war. The Guernica painting which measures 3.5 m by 7.8 m depicts the destruction of war on innocent lives and has become a potent anti-war symbol.

Thereupon followed a PowerPoint presentation about how almost 8,000 Article 9 Groups spread in order to safeguard the war renouncing article 9 of the Constitution. It is precisely when premier Koizumi succeeded in convincing 70% of the people that the Constitution had to be updated and only 23% were found to be against any revision, that this grassroots movement took off all over the country. (In the same vein bishop Matsuura Gorô urged the Catholics to form Peace 9 Groups of 3 to 5 people; in Jan. ‘09 1,107 groups were registered.) In five years time they succeeded in completely reversing the nefarious trend. According to the most recent survey conducted by the Asahi Shimbun more than 70% now want to keep Article 9, while only 26% wish to abandon it. On the other hand, the 52% who are in favor of amending the Constitution, want to do so only in view of adding new rights, such as the right to a clean environment, voting age at 18, etc.

The great guest of the day was composer Prof. Ikebe Shinichirô, known for the scores of Kurozawa’s movies Kagemusha and Dreams and for the music of several NHK documentaries and Taiga Drâma. He is a spirited talker too and in a live interview with the humorous leader Tanaka of the Choir of Kobe City Hall Center he pleaded for maintaining the momentum of the peace movement, because not a few people like the influential former newscaster Sakurai Yoshiko, former defense minister Koike Yuriko and The Yomiuri Shimbun editorials （”Diet should start review of Constitution ASAP”）continue to call for changing the Constitution. Moreover, Ikebe labeled the politicians who say that it is time to change after 60 years as incompetent, for genuine statesmen use a much longer time span to evaluate historic achievements. The articles of Japan’s peace Constitution, he added, are formulated broadly enough to cover such new aspects as ecology and gender equality and thus are able to inspire Japan and the world for many more decades.

Professor Ikebe declared that his way of fostering the peace movement is through music and he urged everyone to promote peace with his or her talents in the situation he or she is living in. According to Harrie Quaadvliet who participated in the choir assembled ad hoc, their singing improved immensely after strenuous rehearsals the evening before and the whole morning of the performance day under the rigorous direction of maestro Ikebe who composed all the arrangements. Accompanied by professional pianist Ooue the choir gave heart moving renditions (in Japanese) of Amazing Grace, Deep River, The Hymn of the Republic, Tanigawa Shuntarô’s poem 平和、それは … (Peace, that is …) and the Hispanic American Kim Rosario’s translated anti-war song私たちが進み続ける理由 (The reason why we will overcome), both splendidly set to music by Ikebe himself.

At the end of the three hour long event a 23 year old laid off temporary IT worker from Kakogawa proclaimed the draft of a Constitution Day’s Appeal. It pointed out that “the missile launching by North Korea had again strengthened the voices in Japan calling for rearmament. However, restraint was urged and diplomatic ways to solve the problem must be pursued in view of reducing tension in Asia. … While people’s livelihood is based on peace, it has been encroached upon by the deregulation of the stipulations of the labor law thus causing nonregulatory workers to end up as working poor. Therefore, the right to a decent livelihood as guaranteed by Article 25 needs to be reconfirmed and this ideal should be put widely into practice when building society.” The assembly adopted this appeal with a thunderous applause.

For the encore, director Ikebe had chosen Amazing Grace, so that the whole performance (on purpose?) received an amazing inclusion, namely that only God’s shalôm saves the ‘wretched’ warmongers we all potentially are …

Under Construction
January 2010

Under Construction

Under Construction

CICM-JP New Interns

In September 2009, Japan Province was blessed by the arrival of three young missionaries.

They are bros. Armando Romero (Filipino), Frederic Khonde Ntoto (Congolese) and Justin Lukusa Mende (Congolese). After graduting from Maryhill School of Theology (MST) in Manila, they came as interns to do their 3 year-internship program in the country. At the moment, they live in Kongo Formation Community (c/o Kongo Catholic Church) while doing their Japanese Language Study in Osaka.


Frederic, Armando, Harnoko and Justin.

Himeji City is well-known because of its magnificent castle, Himeji Castle (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) surrounded by beautiful Japanese gardens. Himeji is the second largest city of Hyogo Prefecture after Kobe. It is in this beautiful city where CICM missionaries pitched their permanent tent for the first time (1948). For us, CICM-Japan Himeji has become our mother house, our birth-place.

District of Himeji consists of several communities, namely confreres working in Parishes around Himeji, in the School, in the Provincial House and in the Nibuno Residence.

Confreres working in Parishes:

 Fr. Ludo Goossens
 working for Himeji Middle Bloc (team ministry and JPIC)
 residing in Himeji Church ( Honmachi 68. Himeji City. 670-0012 Japan. Tel/fax:079-222-0043 )
 Fr. Michael Dulnuan
 working for Kakogawa Bloc (team ministry and migrant workers)
 residing in Takasago Church ( Hataraku Hito no Ie. Hasuike 2-12-8. Arai-cho, Takasago. 676-0013 Japan. Tel/fax:079-442-2500 )
 Fr. Raymond Van Der Vijver
 working for Toyooka Parish (parish priest)
 residing in Toyooka Church ( Myorakuji 28. Toyooka City. 668-0804 Japan. Tel/Fax:0796-22-2018 )

Fr. Raymond and his visitors

50 year-anniversary of Ikuno Church

Confreres working in the School and Provincial House:

 Fr. Edgar Gacutan
 working as Provincial Superior of CICM-Japan (involved in Young Christian Workers)
 residing in the Provincial House
 Fr. Toon Margot
 working for Junshin School (principal)
 residing in (c/o) the Provincial House

Confreres living in Nibuno:
 Nibuno Residence (retired): Frs. Jos Van Brussel, Minoru Kokage, Frans Sercu, Jan Schreurs,Gilbert De Schampheleere and Andre Bogaert(Rector).

Nibuno Residence
Nibuno 900. Himeji City. 670-0801 Japan.
Tel/fax: 079-264-1140

 Catholic Nibuno Villa (retired): Frs. Jacques Van Assche and Daniel Van Kerkhove.

Catholic Nibuno Villa
Nibuno 900. Himeji City. 670-0801 Japan.
Tel/fax: 079-265-3100


Fr. Andre our pianist.

Confreres enjoying the summer-vacation.

Fr. Cyril Smet with his smile..


Fr. Van de Walle who likes opera-style singing very much...



Fr. Gerardus Rekdak is stationed at the sea-port Kure.



While working as an assistant parish priest in Fukuyama, Fr. Garry Gestoveo is always engaged in the apostolate for the seafarer (AOS)

Ordination to the Priesthood

Fr.Patrick Castroverde, cicm

May 16, 2009
at the Immaculate Conception Parish, Oslob Cebu, the Philippines

by Mgr. Julito Cortes,D.D.

Titular Bishop of Severiana and Auxiliary Bishop of Cebu



The Oslob Catholic Church


Together with the bishop and priests


Celebrating the Mass


With his dear family