UCAN has published the text of a pastoral letter published on January 20, 2011 by Msgr. Osamu Mizobe SDB, Bishop of Takamatsu, Japan, in which he declares that the activities of the NCW will remain suspended in his diocese. Said diocese is the smallest in Japan (with 5,000 faithful) as well as the home of the NCW's Japanese seminary.
In his letter, Msgr. Mizobe supplies some interesting details of the talks between the Curia and the Japanese bishops regarding the NCW, and asserts that pending the arrival of a special envoy from the Vatican (the second since 2003), the Holy See has agreed to allow the individual bishops to act towards the NCW as they see fit. He also refers to the following actions taken by various bishops towards the NCW in the years past: the suspension of the NCW in the Diocese of Clifton (in 1997), the letter written to the NCW by the Catholic bishops of the Holy Land in 2007, and last year's imposition of a moratorium (not just an inspection, as Msgr. Mizobe says) on NCW catechesis in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in the Philippines.
