“True peace requires the courage to lay down weapons, especially those who have the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe”. Are the words of Pope Leone XIV In a message to Monsignor Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama, bishop of Hiroshima, 80 years after the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, underlining that “nuclear weapons offend our common humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard”. This year it is celebrated The 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings made by the United States on the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively on 6 and 9 August 1945, at the end of the Second World War, which caused a total of tens of thousands of victims.
Eighty years later, Hiroshima and Nagasaki still remain “Living warnings” of the “deep horrors” caused by the atomic weapon: “Their roads, schools and homes”, recalls the Pope, “still bring scars, visible and spiritual, of that fateful August 1945. In this context, I wanted to strongly reiterate the words repeatedly pronounced by my beloved predecessor Pope Francis: War is always a defeat for humanity».
And quoting Francesco again, who in 2019, during the visit to Japan visited the massacre of the massacre, Leo XIV defines Hiroshima and Nagasaki “Symbols of memory” in a time marked by “growing tension and global conflicts”. These places urge us to reject “the illusion” of a “security” based on the threat of “insured mutual destruction. Instead, we must forge a global ethics rooted in justice, fraternity and common good “.
The hope and prayer of the Pope is “that this solemn anniversary”, he underlines, “serves as an invitation to the international community to renew its commitment to pursue lasting peace for our whole human family: one disarmament and disarming peace», As underlined by relaunching his own words of the first apostolic blessing of the moment of his election, on 8 May.
