Pope takes anti-nuclear stance

I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons will never be unleashed again.

Pope Francis

In message to Japanese

Vatican City – Pope Francis, who years ago hoped to be a missionary in Japan, travels to the sites of the world’s only atomic attacks this week seeking a ban on “immoral” nuclear weapons.

“Your country is well aware of the suffering caused by war,” the Argentine pontiff, 82, said in a video message to the Japanese people yesterday.

“Together with you, I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons will never be unleashed again in human history. The use of nuclear weapons is immoral,” said the pontiff.

Pope Francis flies to Asia today, where he will first visit Thailand and then Japan, including the two cities destroyed by devastating US nuclear attacks during World War II.

Despite both countries having less than 0.6% Catholic populations, Francis is thirsty for interreligious dialogue with them.

He will arrive in Thailand tomorrow before flying on to Japan on Saturday, where he will stay until November 26.

Sunday is set to be a marathon day with visits to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where at least 74 000 people and 140 000 people respectively were killed by the atomic bomb attacks.

The August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and of Nagasaki three days later contributed to Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II on August 15, months after Nazi Germany capitulated.

Father Yoshio Kajiyama, director of the Jesuit social centre in Tokyo, was born in Hiroshima shortly after the war and is eagerly awaiting the pope’s anti-nuclear speech.

“My grandfather died the day of the bomb in Hiroshima, I never knew him. Four days later my aunt died when she was 15 years old,” said the 64-year-old. “If you grow up in Hiroshima, you can’t forget the bomb.”

The pope will make “as vigorous an appeal as possible in favour of concerted measures to completely eliminate nuclear weapons,” Vatican number two Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the United Nations in September.