While in many parts of the world, the Church is growing, there is one place where that is certainly not the case: Japan. This thread will go over the statistics and some of the reasons why this may be the case. 1/6 First of all, the data: As of 2024, there are 419,414 Catholics registered with parishes in Japan. This is significantly lower than the number in 2014, 439,725. Baptisms are more of the same story. In 2014, 10,000 adults were baptized, in 2024 the number was 7,000. 2/6

September 28th marks the feast of the 16 Martyrs of Japan. This group of native and foreign Catholics (many of which were Dominican) was martyred between 1633-1637. I'll link a few related posts below. Saint Magdalene:

https://x.com/TheChurchInAsia/status/1593295400957616129

September 6th is the feast day of Blessed Thomas Tsuji. This thread will cover some of his remarkable (and fairly well-covered) life. 1/6 Tsuji was born in Sonogi to a (likely minor) Japanese noble family, near Nagasaki. He entered the Jesuit Order after his education in Arima, and was known for his firm attitude with regards to the behavior of Japanese Christians. 2/6

Today, August 19, is the feast day of two groups of martyr-blesseds associated with the Church in Japan. Interestingly enough, both were intercepted at sea at differing points during the Edo period. This thread will briefly cover them. 1/3 The first group consists of Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary members. Some were Europeans and some ethnic Japanese, but all were martyred after Dutch privateers handed them over to the Shōgunate. Joachim Firayama Diz was their captain, and they perished in 1622. 2/3

Ferdinand Verbiest, known in China as Nan Huairen, was a Flemish Jesuit missionary, astronomer, and inventor. This thread will lay out some of his remarkable life. 1/10 Verbiest story in China begins with tragedy; all but ten people on his ship perish before getting to Macau. What's worse is that 3 years into his mission, the Emperor (pictured below dies and is replaced by 4 anti-Jesuit regents. 2/10

This thread will cover the remarkable (and largely forgotten) life of Iwanaga Maki, a Japanese Catholic woman and the founder of one of Japan's oldest orphanages. 🧵1/10 Iwanaga was born into a family that had passed down Catholicism through generations of persecution. Her family would become victims of the last major anti-Christian persecution, the "Urakami Yoban Kuzure." 2/10

September 20 is the feast day of Saints Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chong Hasang. These two figures are perhaps the most well-known Korean Catholic saints, with both playing a critical role in the nation's evangelization. 1/5 St. Kim Taegon is the better known of the two, and for good reason. He was the first ethnically Korean priest, and his life and martyrdom are emblematic of the flock he ministered to. 2/5

Religion in Japan is more complicated than it would seem. According to researcher James Bartholomew, the actual number of Christians in Japan is roughly double what current surveys indicate. 1/4 Bartholomew explains that official registries have a strict definition of "Christian" which involves regularly attending church services like Mass. Those who actually identify as Christian are more numerous. 2/4

Throughout the Church's history, the conversion of a ruler or his family was often a lofty goal held by missionaries. This thread will cover the circumstances of how the family of an exiled Chinese Emperor became Catholic. 1/6 First, a bit of context. At this point in Chinese history, the ruling Ming dynasty had been usurped by the Manchurian Qing. However, Ming loyalists still remained in the South, eventually being driven back to Burma. 2/6

Zeno Żebrowski (~1898-1982) was a Polish Catholic friar and a close associate of Maximilian Kolbe. Kolbe left his mission in Japan largely in Żebrowski's hands. He would come to be known as the "Uncle of the Poor" to the Japanese for his relentless work for orphans and the needy. Zeno's early life in Poland is not uninteresting itself. Born to a poor family and with little means for education, he would eventually fight in the Polish-Bolshevik war before feeling called to the religious life.

Here are some photographs of Chinese Catholic funerals and Last Rites. I will go over every photo and explain what it depicts in this thread. I apologize but most of the images have watermarks. Image #1: A photograph of Last Rites being conducted in the Diocese of Baoding.
Image #2: A funeral ceremony held in a cemetery. The faithful surround Father Yan .
Image #3: A 1949 funeral conducted outside the the home of a Catholic woman who had just died.

A major part of Matteo Ricci's work in China was his effort to reconcile Catholic teaching with Confucian philosophy, much in the manner of the Church Fathers who used Greek philosophical terms such as "Logos". Though Ricci first endeavored to establish intellectual dialogue with Buddhists, he eventually came to the conclusion that Confucian thought could be fulfilled by Catholic revelation. He expressed the sentiment notably in his treatise "The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven".

This will be a thread detailing the history of Catholicism and Catholics in North Korea. Their origin is the same as the South, for they were the same nation, meaning it was the influence of Matteo Ricci and enthusiastic lay people that brought the faith to the peninsula. Prior to 1948, Pyongyang (which would become the capital of North Korea) was known as the "Jerusalem of the East". While I couldn't find specific information about Catholics, 1/6th of the population was Christian.