Pope Francis and the Virgin of Nagasaki

Pope Francis has been visiting Asia keeping what must be a demanding schedule for a man who will soon turn 83. His most recent stop was Japan, where he decried nuclear weapons and visited Nagasaki, one of two cities which were virtually destroyed by American atomic bombs at the end of WWII and the birthplace of Christianity in Japan. 

Francis celebrated mass in the reconstructed Cathedral of Urikami with a haunting sculptural image on the altar. It is sometimes called the Virgin of Nagasaki because it somehow survived the destruction of the original cathedral. Christians had gathered that morning in August of 1945 for mass and everyone in the cathedral died, incinerated by temperatures exceeding 7,000 degrees.

In wars we dehumanize and even demonize the enemy because it helps us to do the unthinkable in terms of destruction of human life. Did it occur to President Truman or those who flew the mission of mass destruction that others who followed Christ and were gathered for worship would die? Japan was not a Christian nation then or now with only about 1% of the population identifying as Christian today. Still, the loss of life was tragic, regardless of professed faith. 

Francis met with survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, all of whom are very old now. In a statement about the immorality of nuclear weapons he offered "In a world where millions of children and families live in inhumane conditions, the money that is squandered and the fortunes made through the manufacture, upgrading, maintenance and sale of ever more destructive weapons are an affront crying out to heaven."

Amen.