Source: Pax Christi USA
This week, during the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, four US Catholic bishops are in Japan to participate in a Pilgrimage of Peace to promote prayer, dialogue, and advocacy for nuclear disarmament. Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Washington DC’s Cardinal Robert McElroy, Santa Fe’s Archbishop John Wester, and Seattle’s Archbishop Paul Etienne are accompanied by faculty, staff, and students from several US universities.
“We are in a new nuclear arms race with multiple nuclear actors, new cyber weapons and artificial intelligence. Robert McNamara, Department of Defence secretary during the Cuban Missile Crisis, said we survived only by luck. Luck is not a sustainable survival strategy. Nuclear weapons are indiscriminate killers; therefore, they are immoral. Nuclear disarmament is a profound pro-life issue,” Archbishop John Wester said on 5 August.
This is the third pilgrimage for Archbishop Wester and the second for Archbishop Etienne, and reaffirms the commitment made with Hiroshima’s Bishop Alexis Shirahama and Nagasaki’s Archbishop Peter Nakamura to create the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (PWNW), to which Pax Christi USA has been named as an endorsing member.
“Through prayer services, academic symposia, and interfaith gatherings,” according to the official announcement, “the Pilgrimage of Peace seeks to advance conversations on nuclear disarmament, intergenerational justice, and peacebuilding. The delegation will critically reflect on the Catholic Church’s response to nuclear legacies in both the US and Japan within today’s religious and geopolitical context. Archbishop Wester, whose Archdiocese of Santa Fe is home to Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, has been a leading US voice against nuclear weapons. His 2022 pastoral letter, Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament, continues to inspire national and international efforts for peace. ‘We are pilgrims of peace and hope, crossing continents and histories to remember the past and transform the future,’ said Archbishop Wester. ‘This journey to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is not only a remembrance but a recommitment to the Gospel call for nonviolence and the abolition of nuclear weapons.'”
Pax Christi International’s Advocacy Officer Giulia Bordin is also in Japan during these days of pilgrimage and commemoration. Follow her journey through Pax Christi International’s Instagram stories, saved in the Japan 2025 highlight on the profile.
Use this link to visit Pax Christi International’s website and scroll down to view Giulia’s journal entries.
Pope Leo XIV recently offered the following message to Bishop Alexis Shirahama of Hiroshima, who is hosting hundreds of pilgrims who have traveled to Japan to commemorate this terrible anniversary:
“I offer cordial greetings to all gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In a particular way, I express my sentiments of respect and affection for the hibakusha survivors, whose stories of loss and suffering are a timely summons to all of us to build a safer world and foster a climate of peace.
“Though many years have passed, the two cities remain living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons. Their streets, schools and homes still bear scars-both visible and spiritual-from that fateful August of 1945. In this context, I hasten to reiterate the words so often used by my beloved predecessor Pope Francis: ‘War is always a defeat for humanity.’
“As a survivor from Nagasaki, Dr Takashi Nagai wrote: ‘The person of love is the person of ‘bravery’ who does not bear arms’. (Heiwato, 1979). Indeed, true peace demands the courageous laying down of weapons-especially those with the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe. Nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard.
“In our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts, Hiroshima and Nagasaki stand as “symbols of memory” (cf. Francis, Letter to the Most Reverend Alexis-Mitsuru Shirahama, Bishop of Hiroshima, 19 May 2023) that urge us to reject the illusion of security founded on mutually assured destruction. Instead, we must forge a global ethic rooted in justice, fraternity and the common good.
“It is thus my prayer that this solemn anniversary will serve as a call to the international community to renew its commitment to pursuing lasting peace for our whole human family-‘a peace that is unarmed and disarming’ (First Apostolic Blessing Urbi et Orbi, 8 May 2025).
Upon all who mark this anniversary, I willingly invoke abundant divine blessings.”
LINKS
Partnership Commitment: https://paxchristiusa.org/2023/08/10/partnership-for-a-world-without-nuclear-weapons/
Letter to the Most Reverend Alexis-Mitsuru Shirahama, Bishop of Hiroshima:
www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2023/documents/20230519-lettera-vertice-g7-hiroshima.html
First Apostolic Blessing “Urbi et Orbi”, 8 May 2025
www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/messages/urbi/documents/20250508-prima-benedizione-urbietorbi.html
AloJapan.com