Nagasaki cathedral bells toll as bishops gather for 80th atomic bomb anniversary

CNA Newsroom, Aug 8, 2025 / 16:53 pm

As night fell over Nagasaki, Japan, on Friday, the reconstructed Urakami Cathedral — once destroyed by the world’s second atomic bomb — became the focus of a 24-hour prayer vigil that bridged continents, generations, and faiths in a unified call for nuclear disarmament.

Survivors rebuilt the cathedral on its original site, completing reconstruction in 1959; local histories record that thousands of parishioners perished on Aug. 9, 1945.

Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki welcomed an international delegation including four U.S. Catholic leaders: Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago; Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C.; Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle; and Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their visit formed part of an Aug. 5–10 “Pilgrimage of Peace” aligned with the Church’s Jubilee of Hope.

Sacred ground, sacred witness

Friday’s commemorations included the Interfaith Memorial Service for Atomic Bomb Victims at Hypocenter Park, near the 11:02 a.m. detonation point of the plutonium device known as “Fat Man.”

Bells from Urakami Cathedral tolled during the memorials, a sonic reminder of the passage from devastation to a global symbol of peace.

Cupich, speaking in Nagasaki on Aug. 7, called the 1945 atomic bombings “deeply flawed” because they abandoned the just-war principle of noncombatant immunity.

The cardinal emphasized the importance of finding “people who are so committed to moral limits to warfare that acts of intentionally killing innocents is unthinkable.”

Earlier in the week, McElroy underscored the Church’s stance, reiterating Pope Francis’ categorical rejection of atomic weapons and warning that deterrence “is not a step on the road to nuclear disarmament but a morass.”

Global prayer network

The pilgrimage program in Nagasaki included perpetual adoration at Urakami Cathedral, a peace Mass on Aug. 9, and a torch procession from the cathedral to Hypocenter Park — symbolically linking the city’s spiritual rebuilding to its ground zero.

Universities from Japan and the United States — including Georgetown, Notre Dame, Loyola Chicago, Sophia (Tokyo), and Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University — joined an “Encounters and Hope” symposium examining Catholic ethics and nuclear policy. These elements were coordinated through the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, a collaboration among the dioceses of Santa Fe, Seattle, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.