Cardinal Turkson celebrates Mass ahead of atomic bomb anniversary

August 05, 2013 - A top Vatican official visiting Japan on the occasion of the 68^th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack in 1945, said that in Christ, death, pain and suffering are transformed and instruments of war are converted into instruments of peace and human advancement. Cardinal Peter Turkson President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace made the comment in a homily Monday, at a Mass for peace in the Cathedral of Hiroshima. From August 5-9, he is participating in the “Ten Days for Peace” initiative by all the dioceses of Japan to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place August 6th and 9th respectively, 1945. The Ghanian cardinal said that in the body of Risen Jesus, the effects of violence and death are transformed. According to St. Paul, pain and suffering lose their sting, the end of human violence is transformed and this transformation brings joy to the disciples. God’s Word goes forth from the mountain top as light of instruction to bring hostilities among people to an end, and to motivate the conversion of instruments of war into instruments of peace and human advancement. Appearing to his disciples who are fearful and full of remorse, Jesus introduces his crucified and risen presence as a source of a forgiving and a reconciling peace, and as a source of joy, the cardinal observed. The disciples are thus commissioned to go forth and to preach the same. The Risen Lord breathes on us his Spirit to fashion us, weak earthen vessels, into ministers of reconciliation and peace, the cardinal added.