Rome Newsroom, Aug 16, 2023 / 10:37 am
Pope Francis this week merged the Diocese of Takamatsu with the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Osaka in Japan.
Cardinal Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda, archbishop of Osaka since 2014, was named on Aug. 15 as the first archbishop of the new Archdiocese of Osaka-Takamatsu. The last bishop of the Diocese of Takamatsu, John Eijiro Suwa, retired in 2022.
The two territories are on different islands: Takamatsu is on Japan’s Shikoku Island while Osaka is on Honshu. They are connected by water through the Osaka Bay and Seto Inland Sea or by land by crossing Awaji Island, already part of the territory of the former Archdiocese of Osaka.