For this Japanese choir, to sing at this memorial for St. Ignatius Loyola was to bring their own prayers for peace as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
War and Peace
Posted inFaith, Ideas
The chaplain who blessed the atomic bombers—and spent years fighting nuclear war
Eight decades after the end of World War II, Father George Zabelka exists as a symbol of conscience, one who can communicate the message of Gospel nonviolence.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
‘Lives hanging by a thread’: Looking at hunger and starvation in Gaza
Observers around the world have grown weary of the images of starving children and desperate people gunned down while trying to collect bags of flour or boxes of food.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Pope Leo condemns Israel’s attack against church, calls for end to ‘barbarity’
“I again call for an immediate end to the barbarity of the war and for a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Pope Leo said.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
Now is the time for the Trump administration to help Syria. Will it?
A brief opening to shore up progress toward stability in Syria unfortunately coincides with Trump administration decisions to sharply curtail humanitarian and development assistance and to terminate the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Three dead, pastor injured after Israeli attack on Gaza Catholic church Pope Francis called every night
In a July 17 telegram, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The atomic nightmare turns 80: How Catholics reacted to the arrival of nuclear bombs
July 16 marks 80 years since the first atomic bomb was detonated. The specter of nuclear annihilation has been with us ever since.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
A Palestinian Christian community is the latest target of settler violence in the West Bank
On July 7, settlers carried out a daytime arson attack on the Church of St. George and a Byzantine Christian cemetery. The fifth-century church is “one of the oldest and most venerated places of worship for Christians in Palestine.”
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Leo: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine
Pope Leo XIV met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy today and reaffirmed the Vatican’s willingness to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Posted inFeatures
Pedro Arrupe, Hiroshima and the Sacred Heart
Father Arrupe’s intense desire for union with the heart of Christ gave him strength as he ministered to victims of the Hiroshima attack.