Visit to the City of the Immaculate Founded by Maximillian Kolbe (26 February 1981)

On 26 February 1981, the Holy Father visited the City of the Immaculate, founded in Nagasaki by one of his compatriots, Blessed Maximilian Kolbe.

1. I particularly desired this short visit to the house founded by one of my compatriots, Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe. My afternoon program today began with a visit to Martyrs' Hill, where centuries ago many Christians bore witness to Christ. Here we remember a modern-day martyr, the Blessed Maximilian, who did not hesitate to testify to the love for others, which Christ presented as the distinctive sign of a Christian. He gave his life in the Oswiecim (Auschvvitz) concentration camp to save a married man and father of two children. There is a certain bond between the Martyrs and Father Kolbe, and this bond is their readiness to bear witness to the gospel message. 

Allow me to point out another link that I discovered, here today, the link between the sublime sacrifice of Blessed Maximilian and his work as a missionary in Nagasaki. Wasn't it the same conviction of faith, the same commitment to Christ and the Gospel that put him on the road to Japan, and, later, on the road to the hunger bunker? There was no division in his life, no inconsistency, no change of direction, but only the expression of the same love in different circumstances. 

2. You who are continuing the work he undertook are aware of the missionary zeal that filled that intrepid heart. When he arrived in Japan in 1930, he immediately wanted to realize, in a Japanese environment, what he had discovered as his special mission: to promote devotion to the Virgin and be an instrument of evangelization through the printed word. Founding the "City of the Immaculate" and publishing the "Seibo No kishi" constituted for him the two parts of the same great plan: to bring Christ, the Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary, to all people. You know how his efforts were not marked or limited by human calculation, but carried forward by his tireless trust in Divine Providence. God has not made this trust in vain. The project he began here, in an old printing house, 

3. Its mission must be carried forward; evangelization must continue. In a nation where Catholics are such a small minority, there is no denying the urgency of using the written word, and other means of communication, in the service of the Gospel. The Church has a mandate from Christ: to proclaim the Gospel and bring salvation to all peoples. 

It is therefore part of his response to preach the Good News with the help of the powerful means of social communication. 

There is yet another element, concerning evangelization, in the life of Blessed Maximilian: his devotion to Mary. Was it not for our encouragement that God chose to come to us through the Immaculate Virgin, conceived without sin? From the first moment of her existence, she was never under the power of sin; we instead are called to be purified by opening our hearts to the merciful Savior that She brought into this world. There is no better way to get closer to her Son than through her. 

May his prayers, and those of his great servant, the Blessed Maximilian Kolbe, be instrumental in bringing the Gospel of Christ, ever more effectively, to the people of Japan. 

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