Pope Francis mourned in Japan by atomic bomb survivors, others
Pope Francis prepares to deliver a speech during a meeting at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Nov 24, 2019.
The death of Pope Francis was mourned across Japan on Monday by those who had met him during his 2019 visit to the country, including survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and 2011 northeastern Japan earthquake and tsunami.
During the first papal visit to Japan in 38 years, the pope, known for his strong advocacy for the sanctity of life, called for the elimination of nuclear weapons in addresses delivered in the two atomic-bombed cities.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, head of the Hiroshima Prefectural Confederation of A-bomb Sufferers Organizations, said he felt the pope's "gentle nature."
"I hoped he would recover and continue advocating for peace around the world," said the 83-year-old, who had handed a letter to the pope at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima at the time, asking him to call on world leaders to stop war.
Kayoko Mori, an 82-year-old Catholic atomic bomb survivor who also met the pope in Hiroshima, said, "Seeing him call for the abolition of nuclear weapons made me feel deeply that he was on our side. I'm at a loss for words."
Shigemitsu Tanaka, 84, who attended, as chair of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, the pope's speech in the city, recalled that the pontiff had prayed for a long time for atomic bomb survivors and peace despite the heavy rain.
"His call for nuclear abolition was inspiring. It's truly regrettable that someone who worked so hard for peace is now gone," Tanaka said.
In 2019, the pontiff also met the victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, triggered by a massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeastern region in March 2011.
Tokuun Tanaka, 50, a Buddhist priest from Fukushima Prefecture who was forced to evacuate due to the nuclear disaster, recalled how the pope exuded "a warmth and greatness that seemed to embrace everything" during a gathering with disaster survivors in Tokyo.
Cardinal Isao Kikuchi, who remembered the pontiff's sincere attitude during his meeting with disaster survivors, said the pope believed that "human life is a gift from God and must be protected."
Kikuchi, a native of Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan who has been actively involved in disaster recovery, had been scheduled to meet with the pope in late March, but the meeting was canceled due to the pope's declining health.
"He was trying to reshape the modern Church. I had hoped he would recover and continue that work," Kikuchi said.
Earlier this year, Kikuchi personally delivered a letter of joy from the pope to Iwao Hakamata, who was recently acquitted after spending nearly half a century on death row following a conviction for a quadruple murder.
Hakamata, 89, was baptized as a Catholic in 1984 while in detention and attended a Mass held by the pontiff in Tokyo in 2019. His sister, Hideko, 92, recalled that being invited to the Mass was "very reassuring."
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He and Prevost met in the offices of the Peruvian bishops conference and stayed in touch via text message up until Prevost's election as pope. From the start, Rey de Castro said, 'Prevost was very clear in saying 'For me, Sodalitium doesn't have a charism,'' the church term for the fundamental inspiration and reason for a religious movement to exist. After their 2021 meeting, Prevost helped arrange a confidential settlement with Sodalitium, he said. 'For Prevost to get the Sodalitium to do something just was exceptional, which was more or less what happened,' he said in an interview in Lima. Salinas and Ugaz, for their part, say Prevost also stepped in when the Sodalitium started retaliating against them with legal action for their continued investigative reporting on the group. After the Sodalitium's archbishop of Piura, José Eguren, sued Salinas in 2018 for defamation, Prevost and the Vatican's ambassador to Peru helped craft a statement from the Peruvian bishops conference backing the journalists. 'It was the first time that anyone had done anything against the Sodalitium publicly,' Ugaz said. 'And not only did they make this declaration, but they communicated with Francis, told him what was happening and Francis got mad.' Ugaz and Salinas provided years of emails, text messages and anecdotes dating back to 2018 to demonstrate how committed Prevost was to the cause of the Sodalitium victims. While not all his initiatives succeeded, Prevost stepped in at critical junctions. 'I assure you I share your concern and we are looking for the best way to get the letter directly to the pope,' Prevost wrote one victim Dec. 11, 2018, about getting a letter from Sodalitium victims to Francis. 'I will continue working so that there is justice for all those who suffered at the hands of Sodalitium,' Prevost wrote another victim on Dec. 23, 2018. 'I ask forgiveness for the errors of the church.' After the Sodalitium criticism accelerated against Ugaz and Salinas, Prevost helped arrange for Ugaz to meet with Francis at the Vatican on Nov. 10, 2022, during which she laid out her findings and convinced Francis to send his top sex crimes investigators to Peru. Their 2023 investigation uncovered physical abuses 'including with sadism and violence, ' sect-like abuses of conscience, spiritual abuse, abuses of authority including the hacking of Ugaz's communications and economic abuses in administering church money. The probe also identified a publicity campaign some Sodalitium members had mounted against critics. The investigation resulted in Francis taking a series of initiatives, starting with the April 2024 resignation of Eguren which Prevost handled. It continued with the expulsion of Figari, Eguren and nine others, and finally the formal dissolution of the Sodalitium in April this year, just before Francis died. The Sodalitium has accepted its dissolution, asked forgiveness for 'the mistreatment and abuse committed within our community' and for the pain caused the entire church. 'With sorrow and obedience, we accept this decision, specifically approved by Pope Francis, which brings our society to an end,' the group said in an April statement after the decree of dissolution was signed. There was no reply to an email sent to the group with specific questions about Prevost's role. Prevost now a target Leo's record of handling sex abuse cases while he was an Augustinian superior and bishop in Peru has come under renewed scrutiny since his election May 8. And overall, one of the biggest challenges facing history's first American pope will be how he addresses the clergy abuse scandal, which has traumatized thousands of people around the world and devastated the Catholic hierarchy's credibility. The idea Prevost might have enemies as a result of his tough line against the Sodalitium was crystalized in a recent podcast hosted by Salinas on Peru's La Mula streaming platform. Salinas dedicated most of the hourlong episode to reading aloud seven years of glowing correspondence between Sodalitium victims and Prevost. But he also said Prevost had become the target of a defamation campaign asserting he covered up for abusers. Salinas blamed the campaign on Sodalitium's supporters trying to discredit the new pope. One of the cases in question is Prevost's handling of abuse allegations made in 2022 by three sisters against one of his priests in Chiclayo. The diocese and Vatican say Prevost did everything he was supposed to do, including restricting the priest's ministry, sending a preliminary investigation to the Vatican's sex crimes office, offering psychological help to the victims and suggesting they go to Peruvian authorities, who archived the case because it happened too long ago. Nine days after Peruvian authorities closed the case, Prevost was named to head the Vatican's office for bishops and left the diocese. The Vatican archived the case for lack of evidence, but it was reopened in 2023 after it gained traction in the media. Victims' groups are demanding an accounting from Leo. Salinas, Ugaz and even some in the Vatican believe Sodalitium supporters fueled publicity about the case and its reopening to discredit Prevost. They note that the victims' lawyer is a former Augustinian antagonist of Prevost who has since been defrocked and barred from presenting himself as a canon lawyer in Peru. 'So, when I read about Prevost's 'alleged cover-ups,' something doesn't add up,' Salinas told AP. Rocío Figueroa, another Sodalitium victim who now works as a researcher and theologian in New Zealand, concurred. 'It is very strange if someone is so strong and honest to do like that with victims of Sodalitium and not do it with other victims,' she said. Anne Barrett-Doyle, of the online abuse database said even if the Chiclayo case is being exploited by Sodalitium supporters, 'it doesn't mean that he handled the case correctly.' 'Both things could be true: that then-Bishop Prevost acted valiantly on behalf of the victims of the Sodalitium and that he didn't do nearly enough to investigate the allegations in Chiclayo,' she said. Signing off his podcast, Salinas read aloud a WhatsApp message he had exchanged with Prevost on Oct. 16, 2024, when he warned him to beware of retaliation from the group. 'I have it very much on my mind,' Prevost wrote back.
