Tokyo cardinal: Latin Mass helps ‘disconnect from Church’s social teaching’

Cardinal Kikuchi's comments about the traditional Mass have divided opinions as to his understanding and appreciation of the Church's ancient liturgy.

(PerMariam)— Tokyo’s new cardinal has attested that the traditional liturgy of the Catholic Church is a way for people to “disconnect from the Church’s political or social teachings.”

In an increasingly secular world, what relationship does the liturgy have with the Catholic Church’s moral teachings? Further, can the liturgy be so divorced from the Church’s moral teachings as to be a way to escape those teachings?

If such were indeed the case, then the answer would surely be that either the teachings or the liturgy in question were not actually Catholic, since the beliefs, practice and worship of the Catholic Church are intimately and intrinsically bound together.

So did Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of the Archdiocese of Tokyo paint a line between the Church’s traditional liturgy – widely known as the Latin Mass – and Her teachings, or was he highlighting a cultural phenomenon in Japan?

Cardinal Kikuchi, Dec 2024. ©MichaelHaynes/PerMariam

A way to escape

Japan has a relatively low number of Catholics, estimated last year to be less than half a million, whilst the overall population is around 123 million.

Opining on why that number is so low, Cdl. Kikuchi spoke to UCA News to say that Japanese people have “no strong personal religious commitment in everyday life.”

But more than this, Kikuchi pointed to a national perception of the Catholic Church as being too liberal for Japanese sensitivities:

Additionally, in Japan, another factor is that most people tend to be politically conservative. The Catholic Church’s social teachings are often seen as not very conservative, and sometimes even leftist or, to some, “communist.” Therefore, the Church can be viewed with suspicion.

In light of this, the new cardinal – created in the December 2024 consistory by Pope Francis – commented thus on the traditional liturgy: