Conventual Franciscans hope to give high-tech Japan
something it needs: the spirituality of St. Francis.
With that in mind, the Conventuals in Japan have opened an information
technology center in Miyakojima, Okinawa, and a Web page, http://www.ofmconv.or.jp.
The center will serve as a venue for retreats and seminars as well as
interreligious dialogue in the sphere of spirituality.
The center's immediate task consists in preparing Japanese translations of Franciscan
sources and writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe for transmission through the
Internet. Bishop Oshikawa Toshio of Naha officiated at the opening ceremony of
the Miyakojima center.
Through the Internet, the center will try to present the Franciscan approach to
modern problems with proposals on ecology, justice and peace, and
interreligious dialogue.