GotōDownload PDF
Franciscan Chapel Center · Finance Committee · 29 September 2026

Gotō

A Musical of the Hidden Christians
Why this story, why it is evangelization, and what we ask the parish to invest.
The Gotō Islands seen from a hillside: green islands in a blue sea
Presented by Nalu Camanse for the Gotō working groupPhotographs: Catherine Lemaître, Gotō Islands
The proposal

A sacred musical, written and performed by our parish

A three-act musical telling the story of the Hidden Christians of the Gotō Islands, who kept the Catholic faith alive in secret for over 250 years. Staged by FCC in the Sacred Heart Campus Chapel in Hiroo, which the school offers us rent free.

Sat 13 November 2027, provisional About 90 minutes Rehearsed at FCC No admission fee One performance, seats
Tonight, three questions
  1. Why this story?
  2. Why is it evangelization?
  3. What does it cost, what comes back, and what do we ask?
We know the committee's first question is why. We start there.
Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
I · Why this story

For over 250 years, they kept the faith with no priests

  1. 1614Japan bans Christianity. On Gotō, fishing and farming families keep praying in secret, parents teaching children the prayers by heart.
  2. 1865At Ōura Church in Nagasaki, hidden Christians reveal themselves to a French priest. The Church learns they are still there.
  3. 1868The Gotō Kuzure. On Hisaka Island over 200 Christians are held for eight months in a cell of twelve tatami mats. 42 lose their lives.
  4. 1873The ban is lifted. The survivors come home and build their churches by hand.
  5. 2018UNESCO inscribes the Hidden Christian sites of the Nagasaki region, Gotō villages among them, as World Heritage.
Stone memorial on Hisaka Island with rows of small grave markers
The memorial on Hisaka Island, which keeps the Christian names of those who died in the 1868 prison.
Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
I · Why this story

“The hearts of all of us here are the same as yours.”

Where is the statue of Santa Maria?

A hidden Christian woman to Fr. Bernard Petitjean · Ōura Church, Nagasaki · 17 March 1865

For two and a half centuries the Church in Japan had no priests to keep it alive. Farmers and fishermen kept it alive themselves, by handing it to their children. That is evangelization in its oldest form, and it is the story of the Church in the country where we worship.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
II · Why it is evangelization

It brings the Gospel to people who would never come to Mass

I.

An invitation people will accept

Christians are about 1% of Japan. Many of our colleagues, neighbours and friends will gladly come to an evening of music in a chapel, and hear the Gospel sung there.

II.

Japan's own story

These were Japanese families on Japanese islands, and their stone churches were designed by a Buddhist builder from Gotō. The show reaches a Japanese audience through their own history, checked by a historian.

III.

How the Church has always taught

From medieval mystery plays to Oberammergau, where a village has staged the Passion every ten years since 1634, the Church has told its story on stage. Pope Francis calls this the way of beauty.

Each particular Church should encourage the use of the arts in evangelization.Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 167
Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
III · Why FCC, why now

This story belongs to our parish, and the door is open now

A Franciscan story

Our friars died for this faith

In 1597 six Franciscan friars were crucified at Nagasaki with twenty companions. Among them was St. John of Gotō, a 19-year-old catechist and the only saint born on these islands. A Franciscan parish telling this history is telling its own.

Formation

It teaches our own people

Many of us worship in Japan without knowing how the Church here survived. The show gives our parishioners, and their children, the story of the Church they belong to.

Community

The parish makes it

The composer, the story, the history and the coordination all come from FCC. The cast, choir and crew will too, with rehearsals at FCC at no cost.

Why now

A free chapel and a ready writer

Sacred Heart offers its chapel rent free, saving the rental of the old plan. A librettist who spent a month in Nagasaki's Christian villages is ready to begin. Phase 1 secures both.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
III · Accountability

How we will measure it, and report back to you

The reach can be measured. Every guest registers in advance at FCC, so the registration card tells us who came and who wants to hear more.

Guests
How many came, against the chapel's seats.
Reach
How many came from outside FCC, and from outside the Church.
Response
How many asked for parish news, a visit to FCC, or to learn about becoming Catholic.
Parish
How many parishioners took part as cast, choir, crew and volunteers.

We bring these numbers back to this committee after the performance, alongside the final accounts.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
The production

One fisherman's life, three chapters of the Church in Gotō

Edo period · about 1820s

Act OneThe Secret Life

Daichi, a young fisherman, is forced to step on a sacred image at the annual fumie. Shaken, he drifts away, until a young woman's quiet faith brings him home to a faith he now chooses for himself.

Hidden beauty
1865 to 1868

Act TwoThe Collapse

News of the Ōura discovery divides the village between hope and caution. Persecution follows: a hiding place in a sea cave, a fire that gives them away, arrest, and exile. Daichi hears what happened on Hisaka Island.

The cost of visibility
1873 to the early 1900s

Act ThreeThe Restoration

The survivors return. A French missionary helps them rebuild, and the community is torn over rejoining the Church. The stone church rises anyway, built by all of them, and old Daichi carries his mother's Maria Kannon inside.

Building as resurrection
Music Mathieu Kranich Libretto Gareth Story Vincent Olandesca History Catherine Lemaître, with historian Pierre Sevaistre Spiritual director Fr. Clifford, OFM
Story in development · sung arias, spoken dialogue and interludes
IV · What it costs

, released in three phases

What buys
  • Period costumes and Edo-period wigs
  • A built set and the full props: the Maria Kannon, fumie plates, lanterns, fishing nets
  • Hired staging, lighting and sound for a chapel with no stage
  • A full marketing campaign and printed playbill booklets

Most of it is volunteer. No fee is budgeted for the composer, director, cast, choir or organisers. The only paid role is the librettist.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
IV · What comes back

Each guest gives , and sponsors close the rest

One performance, % full
guests in the chapel's seats. No admission fee may be charged, a condition of the school, so guests register in advance at FCC with a suggested donation.
What comes back
Donations ( guests)
Merchandise
Total back
Baseline: % of the chapel's seats for one performance.
Sponsors and patrons raise the balance: . Fundraising progress comes to this committee before Phases 2 and 3 are released.
Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
Your questions

The questions we expect, answered plainly

Is a musical really the parish's work?

Pope St. Paul VI wrote that the Church exists in order to evangelize. This show proclaims the Gospel in a form our Tokyo neighbours will accept an invitation to, and forms our own people along the way.

What if the date falls through?

The school confirms its 2027 calendar in March 2027. Until then only Phase 1, , is committed, and the libretto it pays for can be staged on another date.

Will people come?

Guests register in advance, so we see demand weeks ahead and report it. This history already draws people: Gotō's Hidden Christian villages are World Heritage, and Endō's novel Silence, set in this history, became a Scorsese film in 2016.

Will it take money from other ministries?

The parish advances the funds, and guests' donations and sponsorship are raised to repay them. Each later phase comes back to this committee with the numbers before it is released.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
The decision

What we ask of the Finance Committee

Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
¥0Production budget

  1. Approve a production budget of

    Costumes and wigs, a built set, staging, lighting and sound for the chapel, marketing and playbills, with held for what cannot be priced yet.

  2. Release Phase 1 now:

    The librettist and the thank-you donation to the school, with a 10% buffer. This is the only money committed before the date is confirmed.

  3. Release Phases 2 and 3 at two checkpoints

    March 2027, when the school confirms the date and the room; and mid-2027, when the cast is set. Each comes back to you with fundraising and costs first.

Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
Thank you
Archive photograph of Catholic women on Gotō carrying bricks to build their church
Catholic women of Gotō carrying bricks for their church.

When the ban was lifted, the people of Gotō built their churches with their own hands. We are asking our parish to help tell their story.

The Gotō team
  • Fr. Clifford Augustine, OFMSpiritual director
  • Caje FernandesCoordinator
  • Mathieu KranichComposer
  • Vincent OlandescaMusic and story
  • Catherine LemaîtreHistory and sources
  • Claire TanPlanning and coordination
  • Anna KuarayaSocial media and marketing
  • Charme ZepedaSocial media and marketing
  • GarethLibrettist
  • Pierre SevaistreHistorical advisor
  • Nalu CamanseBudget
Gotō · A Musical of the Hidden Christians
PDF