Westminster: Commemorating the life and witness of Bl Franz Jagerstatter

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An evening of prayer and reflection to commemorate the anniversary of the execution of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter in 1943, for refusing to serve in Hitler's army, took place yesterday, in the Crypt Chapel of Westminster Cathedral.

Reflections were given by Nigel Baldwin, Pat Gaffney and Fr David Stanley. Ellen Teague and Marion Hill led the music.

In her reflection, Pat quoted Pope Francis' recent address to young people meeting in Prague in which he challenged them to rebel against the norm of accepting war and violence, and to be guided by conscience, as Franz was. Acknowledging the tragedy of war, including Ukraine, Pope Francis said:

"Now we must all commit ourselves to putting an end to this dreadful war, where, as usual, a few powerful people decide and send thousands of young people to fight and die. In cases like this, (the war in Ukraine) it is legitimate to rebel."

"I would like to invite you to get to know the extraordinary figure of a young objector, a young European with 'a broad outlook', who fought against Nazism during the Second World War. His name was Franz Jagerstatter, and he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI. Franz was a young Austrian who, because of his Catholic faith, made a conscientious objection to the injunction to swear allegiance to Hitler and to go to war...Despite cajoling and torture, Franz preferred to be killed than to kill. He considered the war totally unjustified. If all the young men called to arms had done as he did, Hitler would not have been able to carry out his diabolical plans. To triumph, evil needs accomplices.

"Franz Jagerstatter was executed in the same prison where his contemporary Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German Lutheran theologian and anti-Nazi, was also imprisoned and met the same tragic end."

Fr David pointed out that the day also marked the feast of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, (Edith Stein), who was killed by the Nazis on the same day, one year before Jagerstatter.

This was first time the service was held in-person in two years (because of covid restrictions). Sadly it was the first time in about 30 years that Bruce Kent, who died on 8 June, was not present.

The day also marked the anniversary of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. At least 74,000 people died on this day in 1945. Three days earlier, some 140,000 had been killed in the world's first nuclear attack on Hiroshima. Many thousands more were to die later from radiation sickness.

After the service many participants walked in procession to an interfaith memorial service held at the Battersea Peace Pagoda.

Members of Pax Christi, London Catholic Worker, and Justice and Peace Southwark and Westminster held an information stall and prayer outside Westminster Cathedral on Saturday (Hiroshima Day) and Tuesday (Nagasaki Day) with prayer vigils to pray for an end to nuclear weapons.

Elsewhere around the UK many vigils and services took place.

On 6 August, Coventry Cathedral hosted 'Hiroshima Day 2022,' organised by the Lord Mayor of Coventry's Committee for Peace and Reconciliation. It involved a Remembrance Service and a performance of Taiko Drumming. Representatives of the Embassy of Japan and the Japanese community in Coventry were present. Friendship messages were exchanged between the cities of Coventry and Hiroshima and messages of greeting received from the Catholic Bishop of Hiroshima and the Anglican Bishop of Kobe and Hiroshima.

Hiroshima Day vigils and stalls were organised by Pax Christi and Justice and Peace groups in Abingdon, Conwy, and Liverpool.

Hiroshima Day also saw an on-line vigil organised by Christian CND and Anglican Pacifists.

The previous day, Christian CND, along with 100 'Faith Groups concerned with nuclear weapons' presented an Interfaith Statement against nuclear weapons to the Tenth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons conference in New York.

In Scotland, Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow released a video lamenting the "the very notion of deterrence." He deplored the money, resources and personnel spent on nuclear weapons and said, "they could be better used building up peace than on weapons of war."

At the Edinburgh Festival, the Peace Cranes project, a two-year project by Justice and Peace Scotland, is culminating with 'Consequences: Art and Activism in the Nuclear Age' - an in-person exhibition and events at Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Edinburgh, running 16 August to 3 September. 'The Mistake: a play by Michael Mears' is showing in Edinburgh. The dropping of the first atomic bomb is referred to on the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima as "the mistake". The play explores personal stories surrounding that event.