Junko Kusanagi found support in the form of the priests and laity at her local parish as she deepened her bonds with them.
Junko Kusanagi, 49, lives in Tokyo with her Catholic husband, 53, and nine-year-old son . She says that her husband’s illness led her to faith, and that it has been “the start of our real life as a family.”
Although she studied at a Catholic high school and university Junko says she had no experience of being led to faith at the time.
As time passed, and she was preparing to marry, her husband-to-be told her, “I’m a Catholic,” as was his entire family.
“If I hadn’t been exposed to Catholicism at all, I might have had a negative reaction, but having been exposed to Catholicism it was easy to accept,” she said.
At the age of 39, Junko had a son. When her husband told her, “I want to have the baby baptized,” she could not make up her mind. So she asked her husband’s sister, “What do you think of infant baptism?”
Her sister-in-law, who was baptized as an infant, said that from an early age, she always had a strong feeling that “God is always there.”
Hearing that, Junko thought, “In that case, okay,” and was ready to agree to her son’s baptism.
Her son is an only child, and Junko recalls that her husband was relieved and happy that, “even if we parents were to die early, it would be okay because God is with him.”