Japan’s new cardinal-designate has applauded the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a group of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, vowing that the Church will continue to press for the total abolition of nuclear weapons. Source: Crux.
“It is a great pleasure to know that the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Nihon Hidankyo to acknowledge their tireless efforts to abolish any nuclear weapons,” Cardinal-designate Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo said.
“Their call for abolishment has a strong impact on the realisation of peace, because it is based on the reality of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945,” the 65-year-old Cardinal-designate Kikuchi said.
Nihon Hidankyo was founded in 1956 by a group of survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the aim of lobbying the Japanese Government for increased support for survivors and their families, and also pressing governments around the world for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
In announcing the prize, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said it had been assigned to the organisation at a time when the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure”.
Cardinal-designate Kikuchi echoed that concern.
“Even though the voices of those who suffered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs are so strong, unfortunately some who own such weapons are not willing to abandon them to establish a foundation for lasting peace in the world,” he said.
He said Catholicism’s position in favour of abolition is clear.
“The Catholic Church has been actively calling for abolishment of atomic weapons, especially during the annual 10 days of prayer for peace in August,” he said. “These 10 days start with the memorial day of Hiroshima, which is August 5, until the 15th, which is the memorial day of the end of the war in the Pacific in 1945.”
He said the Church in Japan “will continue to work with all who seek peace to call world leaders to abandon nuclear weapons to establish lasting peace”.
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New Japanese cardinal lauds peace prize for anti-nuclear weapons group (By Nirmala Carvalho, Crux)
