Joseph Asajiro Satowaki

Who was Joseph Asajiro Satowaki?

Joseph Asajirô Satowaki was a Japanese prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Nagasaki from 1968 to 1990, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979.

Satowaki was born in Shittsu, and stuided at the seminary of Nagasaki, Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, and Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. As a seminarian in Rome, he invited the Polish Conventual Franciscan friar and future saint Maximilian Kolbe to come to Japan as a missionary. Ordained to the priesthood on December 17, 1932, he did pastoral work in the Diocese of Nagasaki and served as procurator and episcopal chancellor. He was Apostolic Administrator of Taiwan from 1941 to 1945, and rector of the seminary of Nagasaki from 1945 to 1947. Between 1945 and 1955, he served as vicar general, editor of diocesan newspaper, and a teacher at the Junshin School.

On February 25, 1955, Satowaki was appointed Bishop of Kagoshima by Pope Pius XII.