Pope Francis calls for abolishing nuclear weapons

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Pope Francis calls for abolishing nuclear weapons
 
Tokyo: Pope Francis on Tuesday ended his trip to Japan, marked by his condemnation of the possession and possible use of nuclear weapons.

In his private meeting with recently enthroned Emperor Naruhito, Francis shared the memory of having seen his parents cry over what happened in Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb, Efe news reported.

His Japan trip’s first stops were at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities razed by the atomic bombs dropped by the US in 1945, which has caused nearly 400,000 deaths to date due to radiation.

In Nagasaki — next to the iconic photo of the boy who waits with his dead brother at the back for the crematorium with his lips pressed — Francis called on leaders of nuclear countries to abandon the climate of fear on which their motivations are built.

He said our world lives “in the perverse dichotomy of wanting to defend and guarantee stability and peace based on false security supported by a mentality of fear and distrust, which poisons relations between people and prevents dialogue”.

In Hiroshima, survivors spoke and recalled the memories of that day.

“I work hard to testify that we should not use these terrible atomic bombs again, nor let anyone in the world feel so much suffering,” said Yoshiko Kajimoto, who was 17 when the bomb struck.

“The use of atomic energy for war is today more than ever a crime, not only against man and his dignity but against every possibility of future in our common home,” Francis said after greeting survivors. “The use of atomic energy for war is a crime and is immoral.”

He said their possession was also immoral and that “we will be judged for this”.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Pope Francis that Japan, being the only country to have suffered the consequences of a nuclear bomb, has also experienced the terror of nuclear leaks following the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The debate about the dangers of nuclear power plants continued during the Pope’s trip, as Japanese bishops themselves have repeatedly asked for the closure of reactors.

“Please pray that the threat of radiation exposure will be eliminated from our future worldwide,” 16-year-old Matsuki Kamoshita — one of the victims of the Fukushima disaster — told Pope.

Francis heard Matsuki’s testimony in an act with victims of that disaster that left 20,000 dead and 150,000 displaced, of which 50,000 have yet to return home.

Francisco did not talk about the possible closure of the plants, but stressed the need to “make courageous and important decisions about the use of natural resources, and in particular about future sources of energy.”

The Fukushima disaster was the worst nuclear accident since the one in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986.


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2 Comments

  1. He should look closer to home and abolish compulsory celibacy for priests. That way a lot of scandals in the church could be avoided.

    Always remember when you deny what’s natural to the body it enters the mind and mind is the poison factory. Therefore please attention to this aspect. There are politicians to deal with nuclear weapons.

  2. While I am at it, let me also bring up another important issue to the attention of the “spiritual head” of the church and it’s to do with so many scandals that have plagued the churches in the recent years due to aspects related to the parish financial matters, one of which even resulted in the death of one young priest in our diocese only a few weeks ago.

    As it turns out the ordained priests deputed to run the parishes have gone well above their remit and that has resulted in disputes between the clergy and the laity. Priests should be allowed only to run the religious aspects pertaining to the sheep (Repeat that 10 times) however what has become evident in the past very many decades is that these self-righteous priests poke their nose into financial matters of the parish as well. This, more often than not, ends up in altercations between the various factions within the church. These priests create these factions within the church for their own advantage. These priests preach one thing from the pedestal but are masters in running their mind games to ensure their control is exerted on every aspect of the church.

    It is not a rocket science to note but the financial matters should be left in the hands of the parish financial committee and the priest should not poke his nose in its day to day affairs, instead he should act in the capacity of how the president of our country ceremonially decorates the position to ensure the constitution of our country is upheld. That post for the most part should be ceremonial. But what we are finding is that these parish financial committees are only namesake while each and every matter is indirectly controlled by the priests. If anyone from the financial committee raises a dissenting voice, then the same priest through coup d’état, by clandestinely manipulating the other financial committee members will get rid of that person. This is totally unacceptable. The priest should remain only the spiritual head of the church and concern himself only with the matters of the religion. After all, the priests come and go after a few years where as the parishioners for the most part remain parishioners forever. The church and its property (be it commercial buildings, schools, income producing assets etc.) belong to the parish and its people. The schools and other assets are built using the contribution from the well-wishers of the church. The schools are run by tax payers’ money so what business it is of the priests to assume the role of the dictator? The parish financial committee should run the financial affairs of the parish, not the priest. The committee should be ultimately held accountable and there should be a due process to democratically replace that committee after a period with other qualified members. This ensures transparency and fairness in the affairs of the church.

    If such a system were to be followed, we would not see another unnatural death of a young priest. Coming to this recent disgraceful episode these priests in question have acted so disgracefully that they have caused us, the coastal Catholics, hang our collective heads in shame in front of others. How can we show our face in front of people from other communities? A silly matter that should have been amicably settled with the full purview of the financial committee was allowed to rot internally and we saw how it spectacularly blew up on our face only a few weeks ago in one of our neighbouring churches. I am deeply ashamed that this incident has taken place where people from other communities are also asking for enquiry into the death of the priests (they are not wrong by the way).

    These same priests lecture us every Sunday about virtues and vices. They guilt us into believing in all the celestial fairies just so that they can keep control over us, they offer counselling to the disputing parties be it between the divorcing couples or the broken families but in the end they could not even handle such a silly matter of disagreement between themselves. And now there appears to be a covert attempt made to systematically cover up the whole shameful episode. If this scandal is brushed under the carpet, why would anyone take these priests seriously?

    I am not at all a religious person but I take pride in my community and therefore it find it right that I express my views. Would someone higher up in the church take leadership and see facts are laid bare in front of the public and also ensure necessary changes are implemented so that such scandalous episodes never repeat again?

    The real irony is that the head parish priest in question is a talented musician and few decades ago, when he was the assistant parish priest at another church, he had released a Konkani devotional album with the title “Mog kar pelyaaso” (love thy neighbour) and there is a line in one of the songs which can be roughly translated as “before you make offerings to the God go and make amends with the one you have disagreement with…”. This is why I say they preach one thing while doing exactly the opposite. It’s nothing but sheer hypocrisy!

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