Scottish Catholic Observer

Pax Christi, the international Catholic movement for peace, will host vigils in a number of cities, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament have organised a lantern floating to take place outside the Scottish Parliament, and a member of the Glasgow Catholic Worker will forgo food for four days in an act of repentance outside Buchanan Galleries in the city.

The US dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and a second on Nagasaki on August 9.

Between 100,000 and 180,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and between 50,000 and 100,000 died in Nagasaki.

Trident, the UK nuclear weapons programme, is eight times more powerful than the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and has been consistently opposed by the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.

“This is an ideal time to engage people in thinking about the reality of nuclear weapons today,” Pat Gaffney, general secretary of Pax Christi, said. “Tragically, they have not been confined to the history books: they are still with us and as Christians we should be doing all we can to ensure that our government does not renew its commitment to Trident, Britain’s nuclear weapons programme, in 2016.

“Pope Francis has reminded us that spending on nuclear weapons squanders the wealth of nations and that resources would be better invested in the areas of integral human development and the fight against poverty.”

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s Scottish

Parliament event will take place on Thursday August 6 at 12pm, with similar remembrance events held at 12pm in

Coatbridge’s Drumpellier Park, 2.45pm at the Peace Tree in Main Street, Rutherglen, and between 4-5pm at The Cross in Kilmarnock.

The Glasgow Catholic Worker event will take place between 2pm-4pm on August 6-9, and organisers ask for anyone wishing to support the cause to come along.

— http://catholicworker.org.uk/

— http://paxchristi.org.uk/