After earning his licentiate in philosophy at St Ignatius Col-lege in Alcalá de Henares in Spain, followed by a year in the US to study English, Fr. Nicolás set foot in Japan for the first time in 1961. At that time, Japanese language teaching meth-ods were not as diversified as they are now, and the only way for foreigners to learn the language was through English. Even with the limited information available about Japan back then, he thought highly of the Japanese and became motivated to study in Japan. “I had the feeling that I would continue studying all my life if I lived in Japan,” says Fr. Nico-lás, which has essentially come true as he has always been learning from society and sharing with it the insights he has gained. He spent two years acquiring Japanese at the Jesuits’ lan-guage school and then another year teaching introductory Japanese at the same school. “My first impression of Japan was that the people are well-behaved and live organized lives in everything. Life here was full of things that I had never seen or experienced before. Really they are well organized,” he recalls. Fr. Nicolás then entered Sophia University and studied the-ology at the Jesuits’ Kamishakujii campus. He says that as much as he enjoyed academic pursuits and his life of study, he also immersed himself in interacting with society at large. “Being a priest is about connecting people and God. To do so, you have to have a profound understanding of both. You can learn about God’s teachings in classrooms, from your teach-ers and books, but you cannot get to know a diverse range of people if you confine yourself to your campus,” says Fr. Nicolás. He was ordained to the priesthood at the Jesuit Par-ish, St. Ignatius Church in Tokyo next to Sophia in 1967 and he graduated from Sophia in 1968. Then from 1968 to 1971 he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in theology. Fr. Nicolás returned to Japan in 1971, as a professor teach-ing systematic theology at Sophia. “My student life at Sophia meant a lot to me in the academic and pastoral life that fol-lowed,” he says. “The relationship between faculty members and students plays an important role in deepening the latter’s learning, something which I wanted to be part of. I also hope that Sophia University itself will continue to enhance con-nections among people both inside and outside the campus.”As a faculty member himself, Fr. Nicolás advised his seminar-ian students to get a master’s degree or PhD. in a field other than theology or philosophy, in the belief that those who will go on to priesthood should be aware of what is happening in Years of Learning as a Student1, 2: At the ordination ceremony at Ignatius Church (1967) 3: Special Lecture at Sophia University (2008)4: Sophia University 100th Anniversary Mass at the Gesù Church in Rome (2013) 1234Building a Career in Teaching and Pastoral Work25Sophia People
元のページ ../index.html#25