Catholic Seta Church
(Seta Catholic Church)
Announcement: From Catholic Seta Church
Father Luca (Tarcisio Bocavico)
Happy 89th birthday on September 1st!
77 years since entering seminary. 62 years since ordination.
61 years since coming to Japan.
Father Luca was born on September 1, 1937, in Guarda Veneta, a peaceful town in northern Italy. It is a small town of about 2,000 people, surrounded by a vast plain shrouded in thick fog. Right beside it flows the Po River, which served as the backdrop for the film "Millennium," a movie directed by Alberto Lattuada with a screenplay co-written by Federico Fellini, and it still flows gently today. His family ran a farm with his grandmother Pasqua, his parents, and nine siblings. At the end of each day, the family would gather to pray to God, and in the cold winters, they would clean the cowshed and pray by candlelight. Father Luca says that when he decided to go to seminary at the age of 12, it was a natural progression. During the following five years of rigorous study, he never returned home. Father Luca was ordained at the age of 27 (1964) in the Church of San Domenico, near his birthplace. He was very happy to receive the blessings of God and his family, but his only regret was that he could not show his beloved grandmother, Pasqua, his newfound priesthood, because she had passed away two years earlier. In Italian, Pasqua means "resurrection." I believe that Grandmother Pasqua was watching over him from somewhere, seeing him become Father Luca. In fact, he had a prophetic dream when his grandmother died. He was at seminary when she passed away, and he dreamt that "she was being carried in a coffin down the road to her family home." After her death, a phone call came to the seminary from her family home, and Father Luca learned that it had been a prophetic dream.
In 1965, at the age of 28, the year after his ordination, Father Luca was ordered by the Superior of the Venice Provincial Church to go to Japan to serve. For the first two years after arriving in Japan, he studied Japanese at the Franciscan St. Joseph's Monastery in Roppongi, Tokyo, and he said that the Japanese people were all kind and he had no trouble with daily life. For the next 58 years, Father Luca devoted himself to serving God alongside Japanese believers in Hokkaido. He initially served in Ikeda, Honbetsu, and Ashiyori towns in the Tokachi region, and later in Kushiro, Betsukai, and Nakashibetsu towns in eastern Hokkaido. From 1999 and again in 2011, he also served at Kita-Jūichijō Church in Sapporo. Although the churches in Hokkaido were incomplete in terms of facilities compared to those in his homeland of Italy, the mountains and nature of Hokkaido, and the warmth of the simple people living there, reminded him of his hometown, and I have heard that Father Luca spent very fulfilling days there. It was no coincidence that Father Luke ended up spending the majority of his life in ministry in Hokkaido; it was likely part of God's plan.
At the end of the interview, I asked Father Luca some questions: "Were there any differences in your service to God between Italy and Japan? Were there any things that surprised you in Japan?" "You embarked on the path of service to God at the young age of 12. Looking back, what are your thoughts on that?"
Father Luca shared the following: "Looking back, my life has always been guided by God. Entering seminary at age 12, coming to Japan at age 28, and 58 years of service in Hokkaido were not my own choices, but they led me to the best path in my service to God. My mission is one that God commanded me to. There is no end to service to God. I am 89 years old, but I believe there is still much I can and should do." He continued, "I sometimes have trouble remembering the names of Japanese parishioners, so I always ask for the pronunciation first. The name Tarcisicio seems difficult for Japanese people to remember. When parishioners ask me, 'Father Luca, where were you born?', I reply, 'I was born Italian, but now I'm a Nihon-jin(Two feets man)!' Ha ha ha (laughs)," concluding with one of his signature puns. I felt that Father Luca's service to God will never end. Wishing him continued good health! (Interview by Rita Sauro Nagai)
Website administrator (Ritasauro Nagai)
I have been involved with Catholic Seta Church for about three years, helping with website creation. The internet is a new medium, and some people may feel it is unfamiliar to the church, so I am exploring ways to make it suitable for the parishioners. Last week's sermon from the Gospel of John, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed," encouraged me, and I am working on creating a space that will lead to prayer and fellowship, keeping in mind those I cannot meet in person and future believers.
Your feedback is very encouraging. Please feel free to contact us.
