Berkley Center

Seventy-five years ago, two atomic weapons destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami was born seven months after the bombing of Nagasaki, which killed his grandmother, two aunts, and an uncle and left what Pope Francis called “a black hole of destruction and death.” In a speech before the United Nations in 2010, the archbishop stated, “The cruelty of an atomic bomb is in its capability of mass destruction and murder. An atomic bomb means a total denial of the dignity of a human person."

Following a public event on October 5, "Are Nuclear Weapons an Absolute Evil?," the archbishop engaged students from various Catholic universities in an informal conversation about his experience growing up in the aftermath of nuclear war, the work of the church to remove the threat of nuclear weapons, and the responsibilities for this generation. Maryann Cusimano Love, associate professor of International Relations at the Catholic University of America, moderated the conversation.

This event was hosted by the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, in partnership with:

• The Catholic Peacebuilding Network
• Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs
• The Catholic University of America’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies
• University of Notre Dame's International Security Center, Center for Social Concerns, and the Catholic Social Tradition Minor
• The International Federation of Catholic Universities. 

This is one in a series of initiatives of the Project on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament.