During the Wednesday, 23 September Papal Audience, the New Japanese Catholic Encyclopedia was presented to the Pope. It consists of four volumes each 1,500 pages in length. The editorial work began in 1981 and has taken almost 30 years to complete. Fr Shunichi Takayanagi (JPN), editor writes, “Between 1940 and 1960 the Jesuits published a five volume Catholic Encyclopedia. We may call it the oldest Catholic Encyclopedia in Japanese. To be sure it was a magnificent piece of work. But it is out-of-date given that more than a half-century of rapid changes that have occurred since its completion, first in the evolution of the Japanese language and orthography, and more importantly, in the Church since the Second Vatican Council. In order to respond to these changes the administration of Sophia University (the Jesuit university in Tokyo) decided, with its Board director, Archbishop Giuseppe Pittau, to produce an entirely new Catholic Encyclopedia for the Japanese reader”. The majority of contributors to the new encyclopedia are Japanese or foreigner scholars who have lived for many years in Japan. In the spirit of dialogue and ecumenism, it has included items and articles on Protestantism, and solicited important articles from other Christian as well as non-Christian scholars. (Source: Electronic News Service SJ Vol. XIII, N. 17 October 5, 2009)