

In far-flung outposts of the Catholic Church, great distances from Rome, marvelous devotion and dedication are encountered, often at high levels.
Perhaps that’s one reason why Pope Francis continues to elevate Churchmen from the peripheries to the College of Cardinals.
The Holy Father’s announcement on Oct. 6 of 21 men to be awarded red hats included five from Asia. Following the Dec. 8 consistory, more than 20% of the cardinal-electors will be eligible to vote for the next pope.
Tokyo’s Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, who will turn 66 on Nov. 1, is one of the newly appointed princes — the second Japanese cardinal named by Francis. Six months ago, I chatted with Archbishop Kikuchi for several hours at St. Mary’s Cathedral, a gigantic modern sculpture of a church.
Spending time with this relaxed workaholic gave me insight into the qualifications Pope Francis values and the way Christ marks some men for lifelong service. And he came into focus as papabile.
A Missionary’s Missionary
Cardinal-elect Kikuchi was born in Miyako, on the coast in Northern Japan, to a Catholic household. His father, who converted to the faith in high school, worked as a parish catechist; his mother taught in the parish kindergarten, “which was more famous than the church itself,” the archbishop said with a laugh, because Japan values early education so highly. His maternal grandfather was Russian Orthodox.
The cardinal-elect was “raised by Swiss missionaries” from baptism. The parish priest, who taught him how to pray and serve as an altar boy “was always talking about the wonderful activities of being a missionary to other countries, so I began thinking of such a future as a boy,” he recounted.
His father — and the family’s Swiss-German clerical friends — suggested he enroll in the minor seminary run by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), founded in 1875 to focus, especially, on evangelizing China.
From seeds planted in his youth, Kikuchi joined the Divine Word order. He was ordained in 1986 at age 27 and took up ministry in Ghana.
How did this assignment emerge?
While in Chicago for a year to study English, Father Kikuchi lived next door to a young priest from Ghana (who became a bishop).
“He told me so many beautiful things about his country that I decided to work there,” he recalled. For eight years, Father Kikuchi served as parish priest in a remote area of this West African country, where about 10% of the nation is Catholic.
“It was a wonderful time of my life,” he told the Register. “My experience in Africa made me unafraid. I was deep in the bush, literally, with no electricity or regular water supply, responsible for over 20 out stations, so it was an opportunity to be creative — it was necessary to be creative!”

Father Kikuchi was the first Japanese priest to serve as a missionary in Africa.
Caritas Volunteer Becomes Its Leader
Back in Japan, Father Kikuchi soon became a Caritas volunteer and returned to Africa, to serve Rwandan refugees in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Thus began his long relationship with the preeminent Catholic aid organization. He served as executive director of Caritas Japan (1999-2004) until Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop of Niigata. Then, from 2007 to 2022, he returned as president of Caritas Japan; and from 2011 to 2019, he led Caritas Asia.
Caritas Japan stepped forward to address the nation’s most dramatic needs.
“Since 2011, we responded to devastating earthquakes and tsunamis in the northern part of Japan, including the destruction of my hometown,” the cardinal-elect explained. “We established volunteer teams to support local people. Non-Catholics began calling the youth volunteers, ‘Miss Caritas’ or ‘Mr. Caritas’ with affection. It had a big impact on Japanese society.”
He continued, “We realized, this is our way of mission in Japan! It shows what the Church is. Caritas is most important in a country such as Japan to show all people the real meaning of what we preach.”
“Through Caritas, we proclaim the Good News, witnessing Jesus Christ. Because of that, people begin to appreciate the Catholic Church and our values,” said Cardinal-elect Kikuchi, who has taken these lessons from Japan to the universal stage.
In May 2023, Archbishop Kikuchi was elected to a four-year term as president of Caritas Internationalis soon after the Pope dismantled its leadership. Sources at the Holy See say it was the archbishop’s excellence in running the humanitarian group in Japan and Asia, plus his missionary spirit, that recommended him for this huge assignment.
As president, Cardinal-elect Kikuchi knows and works with bishops and cardinals around the world, since Caritas includes 162 national relief organizations working in more than 200 countries. In its reach, Caritas is second only to the international Red Cross.
Inclusive Church
Another national challenge that has shaped Cardinal-elect Kikuchi’s leadership is his commitment to welcoming foreign-born Catholics into the Church.
Japan is commonly known as a homogenous society: Only about 419,000, or roughly a third of a percent, of its citizens are Catholic. Yet the country is increasingly multicultural, in large part because an aging population relies more and more on workers from abroad. Many of the expatriates are Catholic.
According to the archbishop, up to 500,000 members of the Church come from neighboring countries, especially Vietnam and Philippines, and as far away as South America.
“In many societies, there is a harsh response to migrants, but without migrants we cannot survive!” declared Cardinal-elect Kikuchi. “How to be an inclusive Church is a major issue facing us in Japan.”
The cardinal-elect has served as secretary-general of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) since 2021. Regarding the region, Cardinal-elect Kikuchi said what is especially positive is that “the Church in Asia is producing so many vocations, the Church is growing and deepening spiritually, so it is our duty now to contribute to the universal Church,” as he told Vatican News.
The Japanese prelate believes his appointment represents the Church’s shift from Europe to the Global South. He observed, “Global peripheries are no longer Africa or Asia, for the Church.” The peripheries are moving to Europe, where vocations and Church attendance are in freefall.
Anniversary of Destruction
Next year is the 80th anniversary of the American nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only two cities ever decimated by atomic bombs in a drive for unconditional surrender. Today, 53,973 U.S. troops are still stationed on 120 military bases all over Japan, more than in any other country.
Since Pope John Paul II’s emotional visit to both cities in 1991, when he declared, “War is the work of man. War is destruction of human life. War is death,” the Church in Japan and the Holy See have been united in opposition to the use of nuclear weapons.
Most recently, both have advanced the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by the United Nations in 2017. Cardinal-elect Kikuchi said he worries that countries, including Japan, are using China and North Korea as “excuses for developing new arsenals.”
As if his work and prayers (united with millions of others) were heard, the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner announced on Oct. 11, is Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots movement of atomic-bomb survivors (hibakusha) from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Nobel committee lauded the group for “its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”
“It’s insane,” Cardinal-elect Kikuchi told me. “These governments must know they can’t use nuclear weapons or you destroy the target, the environment, and yourself. So it’s money going into the trash bin,” when the nation is in a demographic existential crisis.
Finding moral leverage against the arms race is a perennial challenge, Cardinal-elect Kikuchi mused, with infinite calm and deliberation.
He’s a Churchman to watch.