After a gunman fatally shot former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign rally in western Japan on Friday, July 8, Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo lamented that “violence kills democracy.”
Pope Francis in Japan
Bishops From Japan, U.S. Call Catholics to Work for Nuclear Disarmament
The path to true peace requires the world to abolish nuclear weapons, an American bishop and a Japanese archbishop said as the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings at the end of World War II approached.
In Japan, Pope Calls for End to Nuclear Weapons
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Pope Francis visited Japan Nov. 23-26 as a “pilgrim of peace. The pontiff visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki to deliver a message against nuclear weapons, calling them “immoral” and urging nations to get rid of them.
Pope in Japan Condemns Those Who Invoke Peace, But Keep Nuclear Arms
The pope said he felt a “duty” to come to Hiroshima Peace Memorial as a pilgrim of peace and stand in silent prayer, “to recall the innocent victims of such violence.”