ローマ法王、２３日から訪日　長崎と広島で核兵器廃絶を訴え

【バチカン市国ＡＦＰ＝時事】ローマ・カトリック教会のフランシスコ法王（82）は、23日から日本を訪問する。被爆地の広島と長崎を訪れ、「倫理に反する」核兵器の廃絶を訴える予定。（写真はローマ・カトリック教会のフランシスコ法王）
　フランシスコ法王は１８日、日本人に向けたビデオメッセージを発表。「日本は戦争が引き起こす苦痛についてよく知っている」「あなた方と共に、私は核兵器の威力が人類の歴史において二度と行使されないよう祈る」と語り掛けた。
　法王は１９日にアジアに向けて出発。まずタイを訪れ、次いで訪日する。日本での日程には、第２次世界大戦中に米軍の原爆で壊滅的な被害を受けた広島と長崎への訪問も組み込まれている。
　カトリック信徒は世界で約１３億人に上るが、タイと日本ではそれぞれ人口の０．６％に満たない。それでも法王は両国における宗教間対話の促進に積極的だ。
　法王は２０日タイに到着し、日本には２３日から２６日まで滞在する。２４日には長崎と広島を１日でめぐり、集会で核廃絶のメッセージを訴える予定。
　原爆により長崎では少なくとも７万４０００人、広島では少なくとも１４万人が死亡した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/11/19-10:42）

Pope Francis, who years ago hoped to be a missionary in Japan, travels to the sites of the world's only atomic attacks this week seeking a ban on immoral nuclear weapons.
Your country is well aware of the suffering caused by war, the Argentine pontiff, 82, said in a video message to the Japanese people on Monday.
Together with you, I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons will never be unleashed again in human history. The use of nuclear weapons is immoral, said the head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics.
Pope Francis flies to Asia on Tuesday, where he will first visit Thailand and then Japan, including the two cities destroyed by devastating US nuclear attacks during the Second World War.
Despite both countries having less than 0.6 percent Catholic populations, Francis is thirsty for interreligious dialogue with them.
He will arrive in Thailand on Wednesday before flying on to Japan on Saturday, where he will stay until November 26.
Sunday is set to be a marathon day with visits to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where at least 74,000 people and 140,000 people respectively were killed by the atomic bombs attacks.
- 'You can't forget the bomb' -
The August 6, 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and of Nagasaki three days later contributed to Japan's surrender and the end of the Second World War on August 15, months after Nazi Germany capitulated.
Father Yoshio Kajiyama, director of the Jesuit social centre in Tokyo, was born in Hiroshima shortly after the war and is eagerly awaiting the pope's anti-nuclear speech.
My grandfather died the day of the bomb in Hiroshima, I never knew him. Four days later my aunt died when she was 15 years old, said the 64-year-old.
If you grow up in Hiroshima, you can't forget the bomb.
The pope will make as vigorous an appeal as possible in favour of concerted measures to completely eliminate nuclear weapons, Vatican number two Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the United Nations in September.
A previous member of Japan's diplomatic mission to the Vatican, Shigeru Tokuyasu, said he hoped the visit would pull the world back from the globalisation of indifference over nuclear weapons.
But, said Tokuyasu, the pope should avoid discussing the politically sensitive issue of nuclear energy.
Francis is also to meet victims of the devastating 2011 earthquake that struck northeastern Japan and the subsequent tsunami that between them killed 18,500 people and sparked the nuclear power catastrophe at Fukushima.
- Fear of nuclear war -
Francis is used to railing against countries that make money from weapons and has already voiced his fear of a nuclear war.
In January last year, he printed cards with a photo of a Nagasaki bomb victim, inscribing the words the fruit of war above his signature.
The 1945 photo, captured by American photographer Joe O'Donnell, showed a small boy standing ramrod straight carrying his dead younger brother on his back while waiting for his turn at a cremation site.
The late pope John Paul II visited Japan in 1981, where at Hiroshima's peace monument he pointed to war as the work of man.
In August, the city of Hiroshima called on Japan to sign the UN treaty calling for a ban on nuclear weapons, something that all the world's nuclear powers have refused to do.
Japan's 1967 its pacifist constitution commits to the principle of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory, despite counting on the US nuclear umbrella for protection.
- Multi-ethnic Thailand -
Before arriving in Thailand on Wednesday, the pope praised the multi-ethnic nation which has worked to promote harmony and peaceful coexistence, not only among its habitants but throughout Southeast Asia.
In a video message to the Thai people, the pope said he hoped to strengthen ties of friendship with Buddhists.
SinceFrancis' election six years ago, he has made two trips to Asia, visiting the Philippines and Sri Lanka in 2014, followed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017.
On Thursday in Bangkok, the pontiff is to pay a visit to supreme patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong at a Buddhist temple.