Hello everyone. I am Fr. Rogelio D. Cardenas II, CM a Filipino Vincentian Missionary working in the Diocese of Yokohama Japan. I have been working here for 15 years now. Currently I am in my 7th year as a pastor in my present assignment in Shizuoka Prefecture.

I have two parishes. Iwata Catholic church and Kakegawa Catholic church . In these two parishes, I found out that we have a large number of Brazilians. I have realized too that while these two churches are full of Brazilians during their once a month Portuguese Mass (by a Salesian Missionary from East Timor), very few Brazilians would join the regular Japanese Mass every Sunday. In the beginning, probably only around 5-7 Brazilians in one church, and even less in my other parish, would come and join the Japanese Masses . And mostly these were the leaders of their communities. I found out too that many Brazilians still have difficulty in speaking and understanding Japanese. For sometime I just let that situation unfold. I would preach my homily in both Japanese and English and sometimes with a little Filipino translation. It took me a few years to decide that I should do something for these large Brazilian communities in my parishes. As their pastor, I thought of doing something to make the participation of the Brazilians increase even in the Japanese Mass, and also to have a better relationship with them.

Through social media (Facebook) I got connected with Fr. Fabio/Fr Cleber, who at that time was still in theology. We became instant friends aside from being brothers in the Congregation, of course. I don’t remember exactly now, how this partnership came into being, but I think I asked a favor from him if he could translate a portion of my homily (not the whole homily, only the significant parts) so that I could use his translation when I deliver my homily during my Japanese Mass. I told him about the situation in my two parishes, and I told him also that maybe even just hearing some small part of of the homily in Portuguese, the number of Brazilians coming to Mass would increase. He agreed to do it as a kind of a “foreign mission” for him. Since then, up to the present, Fr. Fabio has been helping me with the translation. As the years went by, I observed that, there was an increase of Brazilians in my Japanese Masses. Their number has increased, not very large though, but I am happy that the Brazilians appreciate the effort that I do and I think they tell other Brazilians to come because the priest (me) delivers a portion of the homily in Portuguese. They are grateful to Fr. Fabio for doing this for them.

The process has invollved the following: I would send a portion of my homily for translation either Wednesday or Thursday, and Fr. Fabio would sent back the text around Thursday or Friday, accompanied by an audio, so that I have a guide on how to pronounce the words properly. It has been years now that we partner together in this endeavor. When we started Fr Fabio was just a theology student, now he is a priest. And the partnership continues. I thank God for this gift of Fr. Fabio. And I thank our founder St. Vincent for the inspiration to engage in this especial mission on behalf of the Brazilian communities.

While the little effort that I do for the Brazilian communities is very much appreciated by them, I still believe more has to be done. What I do in my homily is a just a very small thing. The Brazilian communities in my parishes need more, like actual Portuguese Masses, hearing confessions in their own language and other sacraments, formation sessions, counseling, etc. And I can’t do them.

I really hope that this effort that Fr. Fabio and I engage in will lead to more opportunities to help and do actual ministry here in Japan, especially in the Diocese of Yokohama where I minister on behalf of the Congregation of the Mission. For years, I have been requesting and seeking for ways to encourage a confrere from Brazil (or from some other Spanish speaking province in Latin America because there is also a large number of Peruvians in both my parish and within the Diocese) to come and join us in the Japan mission, but obviously, it has not happened yet. But I am not loosing hope. I believe the day will come when a Brazilian and/or Spanish speaking confrere will be part of our Mission here in Japan.

Fr. Rogelio Cardenas II, CM