Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau SJ, former provincial of the Jesuit Japan Province and former president of Sophia University, passed away at 21:55 on December 26, 2014 at the Loyola House community in Tokyo. He was 86 years old.
More than a thousand people attended his funeral mass at St Ignatius Church on January 14. Led by Japan Provincial Fr Yoshio Kajiyama SJ, the mass was concelebrated by more than 50 priests including Msgr Pittau’s younger brother Fr Angelo, three archbishops and two bishops. The funeral followed a private wake on December 28 and his cremation on December 29.
During the funeral, frequent references were made to Msgr Pittau’s episcopal motto In omnibus amare et inservire (To love and serve in all), which expresses the love and service that characterized his whole dedicated life.
His former socius Fr Tsukurimichi Sozo SJ recalled how in his childhood Msgr Pittau had called him to be a priest, the call “returning to [him] as a summons.”
“I didn’t want to be a priest and wear black clothes all the time and look so serious”, said Fr Sozo. “But before long I began to take that summons to heart, and the year when Fr Pittau was ordained a priest was the year that I decided on my future course.”
In a telegram of condolence to Fr General Adolfo Nicolás SJ, Pope Francis described Msgr Pittau as an “exemplary minister of God who lived for the cause of the Gospel” and thanked God for the late Jesuit’s work with the Apostolic See and the Society of Jesus.
“Recalling his generous missionary apostleship in Japan, where he ended his earthly life, I give thanks to the Lord for the service he rendered to the Apostolic See as Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education and for his work as President of Tokyo’s Sophia University as well as Rector of the Gregorian University in Rome and for his dedication to the Society of Jesus,” he wrote.
Born in Sardinia, Italy on October 20, 1928, Msgr Pittau joined the Society on April 18, 1945. In 1952, he was missioned to Japan where he spent two years studying the Japanese language for further study of theology. He was ordained a priest in 1959. He returned to Japan in 1962 and taught at Sophia University. He became the university’s rector in 1975 and played a very important role in its development. According to Vatican Radio, his lasting contributions include the democratic process of electing a President (voted not only by the faculty, but also by the staff) and the doubling of the student population. He dreamt of making Sophia a university that could significantly contribute to Japan by remaining faithful to its Jesuit/Catholic calling and was especially interested in making it an international university, bringing in faculty from Europe and America as well as Asia Pacific.
In 1980, Msgr Pittau was appointed Provincial of Japan, and in 1981, Pope John Paul II called him to Rome to serve as coadjutor of Father Paolo Dezza, who had been designated as Pontifical Delegate for the Society of Jesus at the time of Father Pedro Arrupe’s illness.
His “Roman” period extended through 2003, during which time he was called to serve various missions in the governance of the Society. The Holy Father appointed him rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1992, a position he combined with the service as General Counsellor and Delegate for the “Civiltà Cattolica” (1995 to 1998).
In 1998, he received episcopal ordination (with the title of Archbishop of Castro, Sardinia) and the Holy Father appointed him Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education. He completed his service as Secretary in 2003 and returned to his home province of Japan, where he continued various pastoral and teaching ministries.
In a statement from Vatican Radio Fr Federico Lombardi SJ called him a great heir of our times to the Jesuit tradition that promoted the inculturation of the Gospel in the East. [Jesuit Curia, Vatican Radio, SJ News Japan]