Pope blesses Mary statue that survived Nagasaki Bomb

(April 22, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday blessed a statue of the Virgin Mary that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan. The wooden statue was housed in the Urakami Cathedral, which was the largest Catholic church in East Asia. Though disfigured by the bomb, the intact head of the statue was found among the cathedral ruins. This statue is currently on a peace pilgrimage to Spain and the United States. When it passed through Rome on Wednesday, the Pope blessed it at the end of the general audience.
Archbishop Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, who was with a group of pilgrims to greet the Holy Father, hopes that the pilgrimage, not only permits more people to learn of the suffering caused by the atomic bombing, but that it also becomes a call to peace with the use of non-violence.
The pilgrimage was initiated by a Catholic from Nagasaki, who thought of visiting various Spanish cities before arriving to Guernica, where another Marian statue, survived the 1937 bombing of the city during the Spanish Civil War. At that site, the Japanese pilgrims will visit the Museum of Peace, where an exposition is under way on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.