MC 8.8.25 Nagasaki 33
Jesuit Mission

Loyola joins pilgrimage marking 80th anniversary of atomic bombings

By Emily Ramstetter

August 28, 2025

In early August 2025, a Loyola University Chicago delegation joined a group of leadership, faculty, staff, and students from U.S. Catholic universities accompanying U.S. Catholic bishops including Cardinal Cupich on a pilgrimage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings. Following Pope Francis’ guiding imperatives to “remember, journey together, and protect,” this weeklong visit sought to foster dialogue for reconciliation, solidarity, and peace across cultures and generations amid ongoing global instability and nuclear threats. 

The trip was initiated by Hirokazu Miyazaki, professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University. The Loyola delegation included Peter Jones, interim dean of the Institute of Pastoral Studies (IPS); Michael P. Murphy, director of The Hank Center for The Catholic Intellectual Heritage; Emilce Cuda, adjunct professor and Secretary for the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; George Trone, chief of staff in the Office of the President; Claire Noonan, vice president of Mission Integration; David Dault, assistant professor in IPS; and three Loyola students, Natalie Pucillo (MDiv ’26), Durshun Shah (BA ’26), and William Wade (BS ’26) 

Commemorations and dialogue 

Over nine months of preparation culminated in a series of Masses and various commemorative events—both civic, public facing gatherings and various academic panel events and keynote reflections in the two bombed cities. The academic interventions featured experts on the Catholic ethics of nuclear weapons and their humanitarian and environmental consequences, as well as young voices from the U.S. and Japan on intergenerational justice and peacebuilding.  

“This pilgrimage showed our students that Catholic higher education has a role to play in healing divides and building peace,” said Jones.  

A student forum co-organized by Loyola faculty used the synodal method championed by Pope Francis to guide discussions.  

“For me, the most profound moments were in prayer and dialogue with the hibakusha (bomb survivors), who offered us the gift of their testimonies of both the immediate devastation and the generational impacts of the bombs,” said Pucillo. “The stories they entrusted to us revealed the true, undeniable cost of nuclear warfare, and renewed my determination to work for peace and nonviolence.” 

Wade shared a similar feeling of renewal. “As a Catholic, this pilgrimage offered me another opportunity to fully turn toward the universality of the church,” he said. “Through peace dialogues with Japanese leaders, academic-facilitated seminars, and the emphasis of the centrality of the Eucharist, our pilgrimage fostered hope in this Jubilee year.”

Bearing witness and building peace

In her remarks at the final convening of the pilgrimage, Noonan noted, “we pilgrims of hope in this 80th year since the terrible detonation of nuclear weapons are having an experience of generational transition where those among us who have seen with their own eyes that terrible destruction are pleading with younger generations to disarm, build bridges, do justice, create peace.” 

One of the most moving moments was the group’s visit to the Jesuit Novitiate House in Nagatsuka, where future Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Pedro Arrupe, S.J. survived the Hiroshima blast and helped treat the wounded.  

“Standing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki deepened our understanding of what reconciliation and peace require,” said Murphy. “It was a transformative experience for all of us.” 

The pilgrimage was held in partnership with the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (PWNW), founded in August 2023 by bishops of four U.S. and Japanese dioceses affected by nuclear weapons development: Santa Fe, Seattle, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Along with Loyola, participating Catholic universities included Georgetown University, Marquette University, the University of Notre Dame, Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University, and Sophia University, Tokyo. 

Header photo and some labeled photos in the story courtesy of Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame.