Franciscans Go High-Tech in Japan

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.