Four Japanese bishops have travelled to Rome for a meeting with Pope Benedict to seek Holy See intervention to resolve what they describe as a "serious problem" with the methods of the Neo-Catechumenal Way movement and its seminary in a Japanese diocese..."We hate to come so often but we had to give the serious nature of the problem that needs to be resolved", Archbishop Okada of Tokyo, president of the bishops' conference, told UCA News in Rome..."In the small Catholic Church of Japan, the powerful sect-like activity of Way members is divisive and confrontational. It has caused sharp painful division and strife within the Church".
Not of interest to many on the board but it seems that Japanese Catholics are pinning their hopes on Benedict to pull the carpet from under a sect which has been built in Takamatsu. Here's a story from 2003:
MATSUYAMA, Japan (UCAN) -- A court in Japan has ordered Bishop Fukahori Satoshi of Takamatsu to pay compensation to two Catholics who sued him for defamation in a dispute over a seminary. Presiding Judge Uehara Hiroyuki of the Matsuyama District Court on June 25 ruled that two pastoral letters issued by the bishop in 2000 and 2001 defamed Kuribayashi Takamitsu and Morioka Genzo. He ordered compensation of 400,000 yen to each of the laymen. Kuribayashi, 42, and Morioka, 66, had opposed the establishment of the Redemptoris Mater diocesan seminary run by the Neocatechumenal Way in Takamatsu, about 520 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. They also opposed construction of a building to house the seminary. The two parishioners voiced their opposition to the diocesan Lay Apostolate Council and made efforts to head off a TV station's coverage of the seminary.
Church sources told UCA News many laypeople object to the financial burden they believe construction of the seminary imposes on their small diocese. They also tend to see the project as serving the purposes of the Neocatechumenal movement and not the diocese, which has about 5,500 Catholics out of 4.2 million people living in its territory. The seminary, established in 1990, is operating in temporary quarters. It is one of 46 diocesan missionary seminaries on five continents run by the Neocatechumenal Way, a lay movement founded in Spain in 1964 that was introduced into Japan in 1973. Bishop Fukahori, 78, issued pastoral letters in July 2000 and January 2001 that criticized Kuribayashi and Morioka by name for opposing the seminary and for inhibiting the TV coverage. In March 2001, the two laymen brought charges against the bishop for defamation.
The bishop maintained during the two-year trial that the case belonged not in a civil court but in a Church court, because the question of whether or not a seminary should be opened is an internal affair of the Church. However, the court ruled that the defamation case came under civil law and the court's jurisdiction. The bishop was not present when the decision that the letters were defamatory was handed down.
Father Taniguchi Koki, head of the committee charged with raising funds for the seminary, said afterwards, "I have no comment now because I have not carefully read the decision yet, but I think we should pursue the case until we win." Morioka said at a press conference following the verdict, "I hoped that through this trial we could bring the problems of the seminary to light and get some change for the better." He added: "I am in no way happy over winning. I deeply hope to discuss within the Church and with the bishop how to solve problems related to the seminary."
The plaintiffs' lawyer, Azuma Shun-ishi, commented that "if the head of a local Church, the bishop, does not hear the opinions of the faithful in a democratic manner and does not have an open style of management, the Church will be troubled." Bishop Fukahori reportedly has decided not to appeal the court decision. Redemptoris Mater seminary currently has 28 students, only two of whom are Japanese. The rest -- from Italy, Latin America and Spain -- were sent to Japan by Neocatechumenal Way communities.
The Way, as many followers call it, has the support of Pope John Paul II. It describes itself as "a group of people who wish to rediscover and to live the Christian life fully" through a program of formation "like that of the early Church but adapted to their condition as baptized persons." The movement claims about 17,000 communities in some 900 dioceses worldwide, and says more than 700 priests have been ordained from its seminaries.
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