Japan's Neo-Cardinal Wants Another Francis (sic)
"If there is a conclave soon, I think we need someone who will continue the policies of Francis," he said, apparently seriously.
According to Monsignor Kikuchi, Francis "started this synodal journey to create a synodal Church, and if someone comes with ... a different agenda, then what we have done would be in vain, it would just disappear". In reality, Francis has turned the Church into a dictatorship where the boss alone decides everything.
Kikuchi attended Francis' ex-synod. He will be helpless in the next conclave: "After the announcement, a few days later, I looked on the website for the names of the cardinals under 80, i.e. those who are currently eligible to vote in a conclave. I know some of them, but many I don't," he admitted.
He believes it is important for new cardinals to get to know the other cardinals, "otherwise it will be very difficult to elect someone as pope," he said while Francis chooses cardinals from all over the place and then prevents them from meeting, apparently to avoid the creation of centres of power among cardinals who might challenge his mismanagement.
As President of Caritas Internationalis, Monsignor Kikuchi has met many cardinals and bishops from different parts of the world, although he added: "But I don't know... who they are".
After his ordination in 1986, Father Kikuchi, a member of the Society of the Divine Word, worked in Ghana for eight years.
The Church in Japan is one of the few that is not doing well, which is unusual for Asia. The main reason is that bishops and also the priests are secularised and wishy-washy.
Many among the practicing Catholics in Tokyo archdiocese are Chinese and Filipinos.
Picture: Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsZchrnifayz