ROME (UCAN) -- Father Gabriel Boudreault, who recently received an honor granted by Emperor Akihito of Japan, was born about 30 kilometers from Quebec, Canada.

Father Gabriel Boudreault (right) receives imperial honor

The third of five children, he was baptized at the Shrine of St. Anne de Beupre, patroness of sailors, the first pilgrimage site in North America. It was staffed by the Redemptorists for 130 years, and his grandfather and father had worked to rebuild the shrine.

His vocation flowered at the shrine and he joined the Redemptorists. After studying in Canada, he was ordained in 1949 and went to Japan in 1950. He remained there until 1986.

For the next 20 years, until 2006, he served in Rome as first head of the Japanese bishops' Rome liaison office with the Holy See, and as ecclesiastical counselor to Japan's Embassy to the Holy See. Japan's ambassador to the Holy See, Ambassador Kagefumi Ueno, conferred the Order of the Rising Sun on Father Boudreault during a June 4 ceremony at the ambassador's residence in Rome.

Before World War II it was very difficult for missioners to get into Japan. But during the U.S. occupation after Japan lost the war, General Douglas MacArthur invited missioners, Catholics and Protestants, to help the people. The Holy See asked all available missioners in Canada to go to Japan.

The Redemptorists, among others, answered the call and opened a mission there in 1948. Father Boudreault was in the fourth group to go. He traveled by ship from Oakland, California, together with 14 other Catholic priests and nuns, and more than 200 Protestant ministers. They sailed for 10 days, including a one-day stopover in Hawaii, and were hit by a storm before reaching Yokohama, the port south of Tokyo.

During the 1960s he served for two-and-a-half years as vice provincial of the Redemptorists in Japan and president of the Conference of Religious Superiors in Japan.

In the interview, Father Boudreault says he disagrees with those who think Christianity has not made much progress in Japan, saying Japanese Christians might be a small community but they are fervent. Citing a survey, he also says that while there are 1 million Japanese Catholics, there are 4 million others who think as Catholics because they attended Catholic schools or had some other contact with the Church.

The interview follows:

UCA NEWS: What were your first impressions when you arrived in Japan?

FATHER GABRIEL BOUDREAULT: My first impressions were in Kamakura [south of Yokohama]. They took us to our house and we traveled along the street and all the fences were of bamboo, or bushes or trees. You could not see anything. I was amazed.

But I realized later on that although you cannot see anything from the outside, if you go in you find beautiful gardens and the people; and the people were very, very gentle. Gentle, but we could not speak to them. Those were my first impressions.

To know Japan you have to go through those fences. The people are very closed. The Japanese are very prudent, because before talking they listen to you. They are closed but at the same time very gentle.

At that time the people were very poor; the country was poor, the clothes, and the food too. But they were very willing to help us learn the language.

When we went to Japan we were all called American -- Amerikagin, Amerikagin -- because the Americans had bombed Japan. The people were closed, but they were not against us.

You worked with the Japanese for 36 years in Japan and 20 in Rome. What have you learned about them?

I answer in one sentence: All I am now I owe to the Japanese people. Let me explain. Japan is a completely different civilization to my own. I was a Religious, educated in the seminary, so I was living in a small circle. Then I went to a new country and I couldn't even talk to the people. The food, the customs -- everything was different. But I was happy to be able to know all this. And then the people were so generous to me. I love to be back in Japan, I feel at ease there.

What attracts you to a culture so different from your own?

A Japanese bishop who spoke French took me to that district where I worked for some years and told me, "Remember, even if you have been in Japan for 20 years you won't understand the Japanese." Maybe it is true, but at least I learned that I could not understand all of them.

Then I came to see that the Japanese are very close to nature; they appreciate the feelings of people probably more so than we Canadians or Americans do. The Japanese are more intimate. I came to understand this gradually, but I also know that we are helped by the grace of God to be missionaries.

What did you conclude after 36 years as a missioner in Japan?

Because I worked in Ofuna [a suburb of Kamakura] at the beginning, perhaps I say this. For a man to build something is good, and I built a church, a kindergarten and so on; but to build a community is something else.

So when I left Ofuna, I had a big family. I am still relating with people there -- they are my brothers.

When I went to that part of the country there was nothing. I built kindergartens in Ofuna and Okaya, an old people's home in Kamisuwa [all northwest of Tokyo]. I wasn't prepared for all that. I think I was pushed forward and carried by the people. I built a church in 1958-59, a brand new church and I built a community, and I worked with the young people. I kept a connection with that church. They founded a society and whenever I go back to Japan we meet.

Would you agree with those who say Christianity hasn't made much progress in Japan?

I would not agree with them. Not much in terms of numbers, maybe, but the Church of Japan is very well established, and the people who are baptized are for the most part very good Christians. There is a real fervent community in Japan, even though it is small. Like every community it has its problems, but it is well established and still fervent.

The Japanese Christians are proud of being Christians; they are not ashamed of this in that Buddhist environment. They are glad to be Christian because the Church is well thought of by the government, probably because of our Catholic school system, our hospitals and social work, and so on. Then again, the Catholic Church is on the Right you know, not too much on the Left, and so the government feels safe; whereas other Churches might be more on the Left.

Then there is Sophia University. After the war it was probably a third-class university, now it is among the first-class universities. There is another one in Nagoya, run by the Divine Word Fathers, and there are many universities run by sisters.

From your liaison experience in Rome, do you think the Vatican really understands the Church in Japan?

I don't think so. Rome is too much Rome; they are thinking about the center. I don't think they understand the Church in Japan. You see, they think the Catholic Church should be a Roman Church, but that's impossible. And most of the people working in the Vatican, they were brought up here, obtained their degrees here, and they don't know the situation in places like Japan nor speak the language.

How do you see the future of Christianity in Japan?

I don't see it becoming much larger, but I don't really know. The grace of God is infinite. But I am sure the Church will remain strong at core. I have no doubt about that: the Japanese [Catholics] will remain Catholic.

So you think the Church is deeply rooted in the Japanese culture?

I can't speak for the Japanese culture as such, but I think the Catholic Church is solid in Japan.

Do you think the Church is well integrated in Japan?

I'm not sure I can properly reply to that question now, but it might be. Some years ago they took a survey about how many people belonged to the different religions, and the result was that there are 4 million Catholics in Japan! Actually there are only 1 million, but the survey shows that there are 4 million who, though not baptized, are thinking as Catholics because many of them attended Catholic schools, or had some contact with the Church.

I had the same experience in Kamisuwa. There I knew a Buddhist family that had a Buddhist altar in their home, but when the old man was dying, he said: "I am Catholic-thinking." But because of their religion and culture, they wouldn't be baptized.

You went around the country preaching and giving missions, what did you learn from the people?

The historical Christians are very strong, and some new ones, though they are not so deeply rooted yet, appreciate the Christian life. I found people very receptive and wanted to listen. But that was thirty years ago -- I can't say what the situation is today.

Saint Francis Xavier spent only two years in Japan, but he was overjoyed with the Japanese. "My delightful people," he called them, and this was the impression he got from living for a short time among them. I have the same impression. All the missionaries love to be in that country.

The Christians are solid Christians. I think that when a man in Japan asks to be baptized, it is a miracle. He has everything else -- good job, good family, good society, everything -- but to come to the Church and ask to be baptized and live as a Christian is indeed a miracle of grace.

Of course there are some who come for different reasons. They are sick or lonely and so on; they are looking for something deep or solid in their life.

How have you personally benefited from your years in Japan and your close encounter with its people?

I became a little like the Japanese: love for nature, for harmony and kindness, and this interest in everything -- they want to know everything.

You still keep contact with Japanese, even here in Rome?

Every year I go twice or three times with a Japanese pilgrimage agency to places in Europe, to the Holy Land or Africa, and up to this day I go back to Japan every year.

Even here I love to work with Japanese. For close to 20 years now I have given bible classes to Japanese ladies living in Rome, and I enjoy it. Most of the ladies go back to Japan after three years, so I have given these classes to more than 150 ladies. They like to study the Bible not to become Catholics, but to know it. I say that because the Japanese are curious. In the past we used to go in groups to visit the churches and museums together, but now I cannot do this any more as I am old.

What was your reaction when learned that the Emperor has honored you?

I was very surprised, because in my view to get a decoration you have to have done something outstanding, a great work or something and I had done nothing like that -- I had just worked among friends.

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