A few days before he began his Pilgrimage for Peace in memory of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe sat down with Fr. Jack Kurps, SCJ, and Sr. Cathy Bertrand, SSND, to do a video interview in preparation for the Dehonian North American Conference scheduled for October 7-10 in Olive Branch, MS. The focus of the conference is the dual threat of climate change and nuclear weapons. Archbishop Wester was profoundly impacted by a visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2017. When he returned to Santa Fe, he was acutely aware that much of the work of developing and testing atomic bombs took place in New Mexico. He has since become a staunch advocate for universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament.
The archbishop’s schedule will not allow him to be present at the October conference in-person; however, he will be available via Zoom to answer questions following his video presentation.
“The moral imagination, which allows us to see ourselves in the other, can overcome the constraints that blind us to the possibility of creating a peaceful world,” wrote Archbishop Wester in an opinion piece – written in collaboration with others – for the Albuquerque Journal published last month. “Pope Francis, that spiritual giant of the 21st century, emphasized its importance recently when speaking with a group of artists and writers. ‘We need the genius of new language,’ he said, ‘powerful stories and images … proclaiming to the world the message of the Gospel, of allowing us to see Jesus … Continue to dream,’ he urged them, ‘to be restless, to conjure up words and visions that can help us interpret the mystery of human life and guide our societies towards beauty and universal fraternity.’”
Click here to read the full opinion piece.
Click here to read the archbishop’s pastoral letter “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace.”
PICTURED ABOVE: Fr. Ari Saputra, SCJ, Fr. Jack Kurps, SCJ, Archbishop John Wester, Sr. Cathy Bertrand, SSND, Fr. Hendrik Ardianto, SCJ, and Sr. Mary Bertrand, SSND (Sr. Cathy’s sister; the two were traveling together prior to the meeting with the archbishop). The group posed with the archbishop following the recording of his conference presentation.
