As the world marks the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that took place on 6 and 9 August, 1945, the Catholic Church must renew its commitment to nonviolence, disarmament and lasting peace, said US prelates attending commemoration events in Japan.
Cardinal Robert W McElroy of Washington, Cardinal Blase J Cupich of Chicago, Archbishop Paul D Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, travelled to Japan for a 5-10 August “Pilgrimage of Peace.”
In a joint statement issued 6 August, the bishops on the pilgrimage, along with Catholic bishops from Japan and South Korea—as well as a number of atomic bombing survivor organisations—strongly condemned “all wars and conflicts, the use and possession of nuclear weapons, and the threat to use nuclear weapons.”
The statement also advocated for the ratification and expansion of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as well as cooperation with its articles on supporting victims and environments harmed by such armaments.
Cardinal McElroy delivered a 6 August address at Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima in which he called for a recommitment to peace, a reexamination of the Catholic Church’s tradition on the just war moral framework, and collective action “until the world’s nuclear arsenals have been destroyed.”