A Miracle at Hiroshima

Pastor’s Column

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 1, 2024

As we near the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, with wars and rumors of wars brewing throughout the world, there is a most interesting, true story that reminds us that the world is actually quite different than it can appear. There is more to the story of our lives than what the world may seem to be on the surface. We search for meaning in our lives amid the joys and trials we all must go through. Even through the horrors of World War II, God sent this amazing sign to point us in the right direction.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, coincidentally, two of the most “Catholic” cities in Japan, having been evangelized by the Jesuits.  The atomic bomb that was dropped on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima killed about 80,000 people instantly and scores afterward; in Nagasaki three days later, 40,000 perished immediately. That these terrible weapons (which are much worse now) have not been used since is an intense grace of God for humanity. God has given us all the tools we need on earth to better our lives, but unfortunately, in our fallen condition, we often misuse God’s gifts, and terrible wars can be the result.

Our Lady of Nagasaki Statue in the Urakami Cathedral

In Hiroshima a miracle occurred on the day of the atomic blast. A group of four Jesuits, who were very near the epicenter of the explosion, were praying and saying the rosary at the time of the attack in the rectory of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church. This was one of the few buildings to resist destruction. Inexplicably, although these four Jesuits sustained minor injuries from broken windows and such, unlike all others around them, they neither died instantly nor sustained any radiation sickness at all from the atomic blasts.

This story is not folklore or a tale of saints from the distant past. Dozens of doctors over the years examined these men to try and discover how they could have been spared from the radiation sickness and death that most others experienced, yet no (earthly) explanation was ever found. In 1976, Father Hubert Schiffer attended the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia and publicly testified at that time that he and the others were alive and well and still suffering no injuries! 

The reason, of course, was that their faith in Christ and the intercession of Our Lady protected them. I love to recall this story precisely because the world is not at all what it seems to many. Not everyone who prayed that day was spared from death, but these four were not affected by the nuclear explosion as a sign to us. The Lord gives each of us many indications of his presence and that there is more to life than meets the eye, if we only have the ability to see it. Our faith teaches us that both heaven, purgatory, and hell are real; and so is the protection of God, one way or another, for all who believe in his Son.

Father Gary