In a message marking 80 years since the United States used atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands of people, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called for prayerful remembrance of the victims and for efforts toward both lasting peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. 

“We must renew our efforts to work for the conversion of heart required for a global commitment to lasting peace, and thus the elimination of nuclear weapons,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio said in an Aug. 4 statement. 

The catastrophic bombings on the cities in Japan during World War II killed approximately 214,000 people, including an estimated 38,000 children, according to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. 

Archbishop Broglio said in his statement that children, the elderly, and the marginalized are among those who continue to be victimized today. 

“Certainly, the atrocities of war continue to be evident even in our ‘developed world,’ where human life is victimized in the womb, near death, on the streets of our modern cities, and in the various war zones of the contemporary world,” he said. “We are slow to learn. Longing for peace, we pray for a change in mentality and an ever-deeper respect for every human person.”

He emphasized that the bishops call for “dollars [to] be spent in favor of development rather than for arms.”

“We pray that the attitudes and absence of dialogue that led to the use of atomic arms eighty years ago might give way to mutual understanding, peace building, and international cooperation,” he continued. “As we mark this doleful anniversary, we recognize the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons and their proliferation.”

He called for people to work to change hearts and pray for the victims of the bombings, and for nations to work toward global nuclear disarmament. 

“Following Pope Leo XIV’s recent appeal, we exhort all nations,” Archbishop Broglio concluded, “to ‘shape their future by works of peace, not through violence and bloody conflict!’” 

During a June General Audience, Pope Leo called on international leaders to reject the temptation to use “powerful and sophisticated weapons,” as CatholicVote previously reported. 

“Today, when ‘every kind of weapon produced by modern science is used in war, the savagery of war threatens to lead the combatants to barbarities far surpassing those of former ages,’” the Pontiff said, quoting the Vatican II Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes. 

About 20 years before he became Pope Leo, then-Father Robert Prevost visited Nagasaki and met with local churches. 

Following his election as Pope, survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bombing shared their hope that Pope Leo would focus on calls for peace, according to UCA News. 

“I hope he does his best for peace,” survivor Terumi Tanaka, 93, told the outlet at the time. “I want this message to spread around the world. We must not use nuclear weapons.”