Shinto priest’s wife, daughter ready for baptism| Cathnews India

Published Date: March 17, 2010

Tags: baptism, Shinto priest, Shinto shrine

Shinto priest’s wife, daughter ready for baptism thumbnail

Miyuki Ito and her daughter Kotone with husband and father Haruhiko

Miyuki Ito, 38, and her five-year-old daughter, Kotone, are scheduled to be baptized as Catholics at the April 3 Easter Vigil at the Yonezawa Church in Yamagata Prefecture, 290 kilometers north of Tokyo.

What makes them unusual? “My home is a Shinto shrine. My current job is as a miko,” or female shrine attendant, she explains. Her husband is a Shinto priest.

Even now, Miyuki plays Shinto sacred music during shrine ceremonies. Her first such employment was at age 23, when she began working at a shrine in Shimane Prefecture. Thereafter, she returned home to Yamagata and married Haruhiko, a Shinto priest.

Over time, the faith she had been exposed to as a student at a Christian high school had begun to take root. Three years into her Shinto career, Miyuki visited India, where she met and received a blessing from Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, about whom she had learned with fascination at the school. She also treasured the rosary she had been given there.

It was two years ago that she decided to be baptized.

One day, during a meal, she began to vomit blood. She learned she had pharyngeal cancer and was confronted with certain death, but for some reason Blessed Teresa sprung to mind.
‘I want to be baptized before I die!’

She thought to herself, “I want to be baptized before I die!”

After her discharge from hospital, Miyuki considered receiving the sacrament. However, a person connected with the Church advised her to consider her home situation and think it over.

Yet, two months after beginning to attend Yonezawa Church, and just when she had begun to come to terms with her illness, the cancer vanished. She then resolved, “My life has been saved by the Lord Jesus, so I want to spend it in the Church!”

Miyuki realized she had become “spiritually thirsty.”

“It’s too bad - even if we tried to talk about the gods at the shrine, the worshippers there would just ask incredulously, ‘What are you talking about?’ But really, my husband and I both wanted to talk to them about the gods.”

Miyuki’s husband, Haruhiko, has consented to her baptism.

At first, she had considered ending her service at the shrine, but the pastor and lay members of the church said that was not necessary.
Family plans trip to Lourdes

Young Kotone’s wish to be baptized as well surprised everyone. “I want to study about Jesus! I like Jesus, and I like Mary!” pleaded their daughter. She even made a direct appeal to the Catholic priest.

Haruhiko is sincerely delighted about his wife and daughter’s reception into the Church.

“Considering my position, I can’t be baptized myself,” he explained. “But for my own part, I do wish I could. This area has a shrinking population, but despite this, all the residents continue to support Shinto festivals with monetary offerings. I feel I must do what I can to meet the needs of those who do so much to protect this shrine.”

While his daughter Kotone studies in preparation for baptism after Sunday Mass, Haruhiko passes the time drinking tea with the church parishioners.

The whole Ito family is also planning to take a trip to Lourdes, France, with some Catholic priests - a pilgrimage to which they all look forward.

Source: Wife and daughter of Shinto priest prepare for baptism (UCAN)

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