The Ecclesiastical Province of Osaka (EPO) this month opened a new base in Ofunato City in Iwate Prefecture, about 420km northeast of Tokyo, to act as a center for ongoing relief operations in the wake of last year’s Great East Japan Earthquake.

The base, which opened on January 14, was commemorated that day by a Mass held at nearby Ofunato Church. Bishop Yoshinao Otsuka of Kyoto diocese celebrated the Mass, with about 130 people in attendance including local government officials and people still living in post-disaster temporary housing.

The EPO purchased the land in Ofunato City last year and designed the base to support the area’s recovery and to provide pastoral care to foreign residents here, many of whom are Catholic.

The EPO comprises the five dioceses of Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Takamatsu.

Those in charge of the project had begun relief activities long before the base was complete; last fall, they moved into the Jinomori area and helped displaced residents by driving them to stores to purchase food.

That assistance created good will among local residents, who say they welcome the new ecclesiastical base.

“The assistance getting to the shopping center was a really big help. I already feel acquainted with the people at the base,” said one resident of a temporary shelter in Jinomori.

Since the disaster, which struck on March 11 last year, the three Japanese ecclesiastical provinces of Nagasaki, Osaka and Tokyo have been engaged in relief work, along with male and female religious societies and mission groups.

The Ecclesiastical Province of Nagasaki opened its own base of operations in Otsuchicho in Iwate Prefecture on December 13. Ten days later, Saitama Diocese, which belongs to the Ecclesiastical Province of Tokyo, followed suit with a facility in Fukushima Prefecture’s Iwaki City.