On this 9th and final day of our Pilgrimage of Peace to Japan is the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. Clocks that day stopped at 11:02, marking the time of the detonation. Our final official act on this pilgrimage will take place in the Cathedral at 11:00 Read more…
This evening, our Pilgrimage for Peace delegation attended the 51st Memorial Ceremony for Victims of the Atomic Bomb in Nagasaki hosted by the Nagasaki Prefecture Conference of Religious Leaders. Despite the approach of a typhoon, many leaders from various religious groups attended, including Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations, Shinto, Read more…
As I write, it is Tuesday morning in Nagasaki, and the outer bands of Typhoon Khanun are already bringing rain to the city, and mercifully somewhat cooler temps, though it is yet to be seen what that trade off entails! Yesterday we began with Mass in the lower chapel of Read more…
After the morning Memorial Ceremonies, we had a short break and then saw a few more sights here in Hiroshima today. Our first stop was a local parish, Gion Catholic Church, where we watched a short movie about the Jesuit Novitiate at the time of the atomic bombing in 1945. Read more…
August 6, 1945, 8:15 am opened the horror of the atomic age with the use of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. We arrived at the Peace Memorial Park around 6:00 am. As I sat in an interfaith prayer service early this morning at the Peace Memorial Park with brother Bishops, Read more…
This afternoon, Archbishop Wester and I were asked to address a group about our Pilgrimage of Peace. Archbishop Wester gave the keynote address, and I gave a few closing remarks. While we wait for the revised version of those remarks, which I will post later, you may find mine Read more…
How I wish I had the luxury of just one hour in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament to reflect upon all I saw and heard yesterday. From visiting with Setsuko Thurlow, one of the Hibakusha from that August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima, to touring the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum Read more…
I received word late last night (Hiroshima time) that my uncle and godfather, Earl Leclere has died. He celebrated his 101st birthday in March. Early summer he finally ‘gave up the farm’ where he and Aunt Gloria lived and raised their family of five since 1952, and moved into a Read more…
Today I had the special honor to meet and visit with one of the hibakusha, survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Setsuko Thurlow was thirteen years old the day of the bombing. She was inside a building on the second floor, approximately one mile away from Read more…
The weather since arrival has been unusually warm, and it was brutally hot yesterday . The forecast is for more of the same during the rest of our stay. Yesterday’s travels took us to Kamakura which is a seaside community along the east coast of Japan, south of Yokohama and Read more…