Pope Francis, Who Called for Nuke Abolition from Japan, Dies

   Paris/Hiroshima/Nagasaki, April 21 (Jiji Press)--Pope Francis, who called for the abolition of nuclear weapons during his 2019 visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, died Monday at the age of 88, the Vatican said.
   Hailing from Argentina, Pope Francis was picked in 2013 to become the first leader of the Catholic Church from Latin America.
   In 2019, he became the first pope in 38 years to visit Japan. During his four-day stay in the Asian nation, he visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were devastated by U.S. atomic bombings in the final days of World War II, and urged the world to abolish nuclear weapons. He also met with people affected by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
   When the pope visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park at the time, Toshiyuki Mimaki, who heads a group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors in the western Japan prefecture of Hiroshima, asked the pope to tell politicians around the world to stop wars.
   The pope will be "greatly missed," Mimaki said after hearing the news of his death.

(2025/04/21-21:56)