The 17th Korean-Japanese Bishops' Exchange Meeting

37 bishops in all, including the Most Rev. Peter Kang U-il, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea and Bishop of Cheju, and the Most Rev. Leo Jun Ikenaga, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan (CBCJ) and Archbishop of Osaka participated in the 17th Korean-Japanese Bishops' Exchange Meeting, which was held in Diocese of Sendai, Japan from November 8 to 10, 2011. The theme of the meeting was "Ecological theology".

On the first day, Bishop Kang presented a paper on “The Current Environmental Issues in Korea”, after the report of Rev. H. Kanda, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Osaka, on “The situation after the Great Eastern Japan Earth Quake and Sendai diocese ? About the structure of the Church’s relief activities in Japan.”

On the second day, Dr. Goto Masashi, a Japanese expert on nuclear power plants, gave a lecture on the “Issues on Nuclear Power Plants”, which was followed by the lecture of Rev. Baptist John Lee Jai-don, Dean of the Nicholas Cardinal Cheong Graduate School of Life, on “Ecological Theology.” After the lectures, the bishops paid a visit to the site devastated by the earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and celebrated Mass at Ishinomaki Church, which was presided over by Archbishop Ikenaga.

On the third and last day, the bishops had time to discuss the themes on ecological theology in group and then in plenary session. After the meeting the bishops of Japan issued a statement demanding the shut down of nuclear power plants. The bishops of Korea expressed their support for the cause of their counterpart in Japan.

The next meeting is scheduled for November 13 to 15, 2012, in Korea.