The long article in the prestigious, 6-million-circulation Asahi Shimbun is a sign of how much Japan’s elites know and appreciate the universal Catholic Church for its unity and for the Pope’s gestures, reported AsiaNews.
The newspaper sees these gestures in political terms. According to the article, the Japanese see John Paul II’s 104 international trips (for which he was nicknamed «the flying pope») as part of a wider diplomatic scheme designed to bring unity to the world’s peoples and favor dialogue among religions.
The Japanese daily points out that Russia and China do not appear on the list of the Pope’s completed trips. It stresses that the trip to Russia remains close to the Pope’s heart, to the extent that the he desires to achieve reconciliation with the Russian Orthodox Church, but wonders if he can make this visit, given his failing health.
Only about 516,000 of Japan’s 127 million inhabitants are Catholic.
