Pope calls for courage to disarm on Hiroshima anniversary

‘It is 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.’

The international community must commit to lasting peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons, the Pope said in a message marking 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

“True peace demands the courageous laying down of weapons – especially those with the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe,” Pope Leo XIV said in a letter addressed to Bishop Alexis M. Shirahama of Hiroshima. “Nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard.”

The apostolic nuncio to Japan, Archbishop Francisco Escalante Molina, read the Holy Father’s message during the Mass for Peace in Hiroshima on 6 August.

“Though many years have passed, the two cities [Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bombed three days later] remain living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons,” the Pope said. “Their streets, schools, and homes still bear scars – both visible and spiritual – from that fateful August of 1945.”

Invoking Pope Francis’ words, “war is always a defeat for humanity”, Pope Leo said that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts” the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should “urge us to reject the illusion of security founded on mutually assured destruction”.

“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,” he concluded.

Speaking at the close of his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Leo offered “prayers for all those who have suffered its physical, psychological, and social consequences” of the bombings, which “remain a universal warning against the devastation caused by war – and particularly by nuclear weapons”.

In his own message for the anniversary, the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops Archbishop Timothy Broglio called on the international community to renew its commitment to lasting peace.

“As we mark this doleful anniversary, we recognise the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons and their proliferation,” said Broglio, who leads the US Archdiocese for the Military Services.

“We must renew our efforts to work for the conversion of heart required for a global commitment to lasting peace, and thus the elimination of nuclear weapons,” he said.

“This week, let us prayerfully remember the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and urge the United States and the international community to work diligently for nuclear disarmament around the world.”

Several US cardinals and archbishops visited Japan as part of a pilgrimage this week coordinated by the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, lead the delegation, which includes staff and students from several US and Japanese universities.

The five-day visit began on 5 August with a panel discussion at the World Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima. On 10 August, the pilgrimage will conclude with an ecumenical dialogue and academic symposium at Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki.

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