Japanese Catholics to Honor 188 Martyrs at Massive Beatification Ceremony

Yoko Kubota, "Catholics honor victims of Japan's past oppression" (Reuters, November 21, 2008):

Four centuries after they died for their faith, 188 Japanese Catholic martyrs will be honored by the church next week in a ceremony to recall the bloody persecution that almost stamped out Christianity in Japan.

About 30,000 people, including a Vatican envoy, are expected to gather Monday in a baseball stadium in Nagasaki, southern Japan, for the largest beatification ceremony ever held in Asia. Beatification is a step on the way to Catholic sainthood.

For anyone familiar with the history of Catholicism in Japan, this is amazing. It will be interesting to await the response of Japanese non-Catholics and the rest of Asia and the world.