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Pope Francis in Hiroshima: ‘Never again war’

November 24, 2019 CNA Daily News 1

Hiroshima, Japan, Nov 24, 2019 / 05:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis prayed for peace Sunday at the site of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, where he called for an end to war and the threat of nuclear weapons.

“How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” Pope Francis said Nov. 24 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park.

“May the abyss of pain endured here remind us of boundaries that must never be crossed. A true peace can only be an unarmed peace,” the pope said.

On August 6, 1945 American armed forces dropped a uranium atomic bomb dubbed “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan killing an estimated 80,000 people instantly.

More than 90% of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed by the blast. By the end of 1945, the death toll rose to 140,000 with people developing intestinal bleeding and leukemia from the residual radiation that followed.

“In a single plea to God and to all men and women of good will, on behalf of all the victims of atomic bombings and experiments, and of all conflicts, let us together cry out: Never again war, never again the clash of arms, never again so much suffering,” Pope Francis said after a moment of silence for the victims of Hiroshima.

“Indeed, if we really want to build a more just and secure society, we must let the weapons fall from our hands,” he said.

Pope Francis quoted Gaudium et Spes, which states that “peace is not merely the absence of war … but must be built of ceaselessly.” He added that the lessons of history show that peace is the fruit of justice, development, solidarity, care for our common home, and promotion of the common good.

“I am convinced that peace is no more than an empty word unless it is founded on truth, built up in justice, animated and perfected by charity, and attained in freedom,” he said.

Within a week of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the Japan announced its unconditional surrender brining World War II to a close on August 15, 1945.

Peace Memorial Park, located on the epicenter of the atomic explosion, opened ten years after the bombing. The Japanese parliament named Hiroshima a “city of peace” in 1949.

“I felt a duty to come here as a pilgrim of peace, to stand in silent prayer, to recall the innocent victims of such violence, and to bear in my heart the prayers and yearnings of the men and women of our time, especially the young, who long for peace, who work for peace and who sacrifice themselves for peace,” Pope Francis said.

“With deep conviction I wish once more to declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home,” he said.

The pope repeated: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic weapons is immoral, as I said two years ago. We will be judged on this.”

Earlier on Sunday, Pope Francis visited the site of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki where he denounced the ‘unspeakable horror’ of nuclear weapons

“The Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to promoting peace between peoples and nations,” the pope said in Nagasaki.

“Peace and international stability,” he stated, “are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation.”

Twenty survivors of the Hiroshima bombing attended the ceremony. Among them was Kojí Hosokawa, who was less than one mile from the epicenter of the bombing and the only survivor in his building. He is now 91 years old.

“Although there is little time left for me, I believe that passing on the experience of Hiroshima to
the next generation is the final mission assigned to us A-bomb survivors,” she shared at the pope’s peace meeting.

Pope Francis addressed the survivors in Hiroshima: “Here I pay homage to all the victims, and I bow before the strength and dignity of those who, having survived those first moments, for years afterward bore in the flesh immense suffering, and in their spirit seeds of death that drained their vital energy.”

“We cannot allow present and future generations to lose the memory of what happened here,” Pope Francis said.

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Missing Zanchetta not in ‘rebellion’ over court proceedings, spokesman claims

November 22, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Nov 22, 2019 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta has denied that he is avoiding a return to Argentina, where he is being prosecuted for “aggravated continuous sexual assault” and fraud. The bishop’s whereabouts remain unknown.

In a statement to members of the press released on Thursday, a spokesman for Zanchetta said the bishop was not in “rebellion” over a Nov. 20 request by prosecutors for his arrest, after the bishop allegedly failed to cooperate in his own ongoing trial.

On Wednesday, a prosecutor of sexual crimes in the Argentine city of Orán, María Soledad Filtrín Cuezzo, requested international assistance in Zanchetta’s arrest, saying he had not responded to repeated telephone calls or emails addressed to the contact information provided by his lawyer.

On Thursday, Associated Press quoted the statement released on Zanchetta’s behalf by Javier Belda, saying that the bishop had not received any order from a judge to surrender himself or return to Orán, and that he remained committed to cooperating with the court proceedings. 

The spokesman said that the bishop had only received an email from prosecutors which did not ask for a response.

The letter also said that continued leaks and breifings to the press by local prosecutors had damaged Zanchetta’s presumption of innocence.

The statement to the media did not address Zanchetta’s whereabouts. The bishop is believed to by living at the Domus Santa Marta in Vatican City after he was allowed by the court to leave Argentine having presented a document showing that he is employed within Vatican City.

Zanchetta is alleged to have sent sexually explicit selfies from his cell phone, harassed seminarians, and mismanaged the finances of the Diocese of Orán, which he led from 2014 to 2017. 

After being allowed to resign as Bishop of Orán for “health reasons” in 2017, Pope Francis named Zanchetta to the specially created position of assessor at the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), the body which acts as the Holy See’s central reserve bank and sovereign wealth fund.

Argentine media has reported that the bishop was first accused of sexually inappropriate behavior as early as 2015.

According to a report from El Tribuno, one of the Zanchetta’s secretaries alerted authorities after accidentally finding sexually explicit images sent and received on Zanchetta’s cell phone in 2015. The complaint says that some of the images depict “young people” having sex, in addition to lewd images of Zanchetta himself.

Pope Francis summoned Zanchetta to Rome for five days in October 2015. The bishop claimed his phone and computer had been hacked, and that the accusations were motivated by ill feeling towards the pope. Francis reportedly accepted the bishop’s excuse that his cell phone had been hacked, and took no further action.

Fr. Juan José Manzano, the former vicar general of the Diocese of Orán has claimed publicly that he first reported Zanchetta in 2015, after the pornographic images were found on his phone. Manzano says he also reported him again in 2017.

In January, 2019, the Holy See confirmed Zanchetta was the subject of a canonical investigation and had been suspended from his role at APSA. It is unclear what, if any, active role he currently has in the curia following his presentation of a letter of employment to the Argentine court.

The Holy See authorities have not confirmed if Zanchetta is currently in Vatican City, or if they would respond favorably to a request from the Argentine court to extradite him should an arrest warrant be issued.

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