Background
Hamao was born in Tokyo, the third son of the Viscount Shirō Hamao (1896–1935), who was an adopted son of the Viscount Hamao Arata, the 8th President of University of Tokyo and the 11th Minister of Education.
濱尾 文郎
archbishop bishop cardinal Catholic priest
Hamao was born in Tokyo, the third son of the Viscount Shirō Hamao (1896–1935), who was an adopted son of the Viscount Hamao Arata, the 8th President of University of Tokyo and the 11th Minister of Education.
He studied at Hitotsubashi University and then joined a seminary.
He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2003. After further study at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, he was ordained as a priest on 21 December 1957. After his ordination, he returned to Tokyo, where he served as secretary to the Cardinal Archbishop, secretary of the archdiocesan liturgical commission and finally, parish priest of the Cathedral.
Hamao was on the hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351 as a passenger in 1970.
He was appointed titular bishop of Oreto and auxiliary bishop of Tokyo on 5 February 1970, and was consecrated on 29 April 1970. He was named Bishop of Yokohama on 30 October 1979, a post he held for almost 20 years until he resigned on 15 June 1998 to become President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerants.
He was made an Archbishop at the same time. He was also head of the regional branch of the charity Caritas, and became president of the Japanese Episcopal Conference in 1995.
He was elevated to the College of Cardinals on 21 October 2003 by Pope John Paul II, Hamao held the title of Cardinal Deacon of Saint John Bosco in Via Tuscolana.
He was one of the cardinal electors in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI. He resigned from the Pontifical Council in March 2006, a month after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the beatification of 188 Japanese martyrs from the 17th century. Shortly after he urged Pope Benedict XVI to appoint more Asians to positions of power in the Roman Curia, Cardinal Ivan Dias became prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Cardinal Hamao died at age 77 of lung cancer in 2007.