Peter Shirayanagi


Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi was a Japanese Cardinal Priest of the Catholic Church and archbishop of Tokyo.

Life

Born in Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan, Shirayanagi studied at Sophia University, earning a degree in philosophy in 1951 and a specialization in theology in 1954. Ordained a priest on 21 December 1954 at Kanda Catholic Cathedral, he went to study at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, earning a doctorate in Canon law in 1960.
Consecrated titular Bishop of Atenia and Auxiliary of Tokyo in 1966, he was named titular Archbishop of Castro and Coadjutor Archbishop of the Tokyo Archdiocese in 1969, and succeeded to the post of Archbishop of Tokyo in 1970. As archbishop, he continued the Tokyo Archdiocesan Convention, implementing the decrees of the Second Vatican Council, and in 1989 led a group to visit the Catholic Church in China. From 1983 to 1992, he presided over the Japanese Catholic Bishops' conference, which opened the Japanese Catholic Center in Tokyo in 1990.
In 1994, he was proclaimed cardinal by Pope John Paul II with the title of Cardinal-Priest of Santa Emerenziana a Tor Fiorenza. On 12 June 2000, he retired as archbishop of Tokyo. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
Cardinal Shirayanagi was hospitalized at the beginning of August, 2009 for cardiac arrhythmia, then suffered a light cerebral hemorrhage. On December 23 he moved to Loyola House, a Jesuit home for aged priests in Tokyo, where he died on December 30.
Shirayanagi was an honorary member of AV Edo-Rhenania zu Tokio, a Catholic student fraternity that is affiliated with Cartellverband.
This is the list of his major life events: