[vladimir998]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,886757,00.html

And Catholics had been in Japan for about 400 years by that point: http://www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/jcn/jul2009.htm

[Rytwyng]

Thanks for those. I was aware that on mainland Japan, that there were underground Catholics for centuries. But that Time article on other Okinawan churches was new to me.

I think the point of the "Village" story is that, these people had very limited exposure to the Christian faith -- and really, really ran with what they had. Those of us in the West, by contrast, are those to whom "much has been given", and of whom much more should be expected. We're soooo blowing it.