Envision the world without nuclear weapons: August 6 and 9, 2025
All are invited to endorse the petition below; we welcome individual and organizational endorsements. This message with signatures will be sent to the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Nobel laureate Nihon Hidankyō (the organization of atomic bomb survivors), and to church leaders.
Use this link to sign the petition
The 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a time of remembering the horror, repenting the sin, and reclaiming a future without nuclear weapons. It is a time to recommit ourselves to the work of disarming and dismantling the machinery of mass destruction and abolishing war.
We unite in prayerful witness with people of faith and conscience across the globe to mark this historic anniversary.
- As citizens of the United States, we invite people to publicly ask God for forgiveness for the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which caused the immediate death of more than 200,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more who died in the aftermath as a result of radiation poisoning.
- We apologize to the people of Japan – and to the survivors of the bombing, the hibakusha – for our country’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we ask forgiveness for these atrocities.
Pope Paul VI, in his 1976 World Day of Peace Message, described the bombings as “a butchery of untold magnitude.” Pope Francis, who in 2017 condemned the possession of nuclear weapons as immoral, reminded us during his 2019 visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki of “the unspeakable horror suffered in the flesh by the victims of the bombing and their families,” and reaffirmed his conviction that “a world without nuclear weapons is [both] possible and necessary.”
Nuclear weapons are sinful and idolatrous. The mining, testing and deployment of these weapons have desecrated native lands and the Marshall and South Pacific Islands and have caused incalculable ecological devastation and early deaths of countless people exposed to nuclear radiation. Their research, production and deployment are a theft from those who are poor, and a crime against God’s creation, humanity and future generations. We repent for these sins and for the continued proliferation of nuclear weapons. Further, we offer repentance for our nation’s possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons to enforce a world order based on systemic racism and the destruction of the cultural and biological diversity of our planet.
We decry the fact that the US government remains committed to a several decades-long upgrade of its nuclear arsenal with a projected overall cost of $1.7 trillion. These exorbitant nuclear expenditures, along with a proposed $1 trillion military budget for 2026, must be redirected to meet urgent human needs.
We implore the US government to end its nuclear modernization program, renounce its first-use nuclear policy, and to sign and ratify the 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which bans the use, possession, testing, and transfer of nuclear weapons under international law. We also implore the other eight nuclear nations to ratify the TPNW, as 73 nations already have.
Nuclear weapons are immoral and illegal. We call on all Christians and people of good faith everywhere to refuse to participate in the production, maintenance, threatened use and use of these murderous weapons.
We firmly resolve, with God’s grace and mercy, to reject the false idols of nuclear weapons, and to embrace the life-affirming work of abolishing these weapons of terror.
As the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist Doomsday Clock is set to 89 seconds before midnight, let us heed the plea of the hibakusha to the world: “Humanity and nuclear weapons cannot co-exist.” Now is the time to pursue nonviolent alternatives to war and to lay the foundations for just peace; now is the time to restore justice for those who are poor and integrity to creation, and to seek a nuclear-free future for our children.
On that day, the prophet reminds us, “God will rule over all nations and settle disputes for all peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not raise sword against nation; nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
In that spirit, we solemnly renew our commitment to that biblical vision and promise of peace and justice, when the world will finally be free from the scourge of war and the terror of nuclear weapons.
>>Use this link to add your name and/or the name of your organization to the petition.
About the apology petition
On August 6, 2016, during a prayer service of repentance and nonviolent witness to commemorate the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in front of the White House, an apology petition was read and presented to Mr. Mimaki, a Hiroshima A-bomb survivor (hibakusha). The witness was sponsored by the Dorothy Catholic Worker, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore and Pax Christi USA in cooperation with other faith-based peace and justice groups. More than 700 people signed the petition. In September 2016, Mr. Mimaki delivered the petition to the mayor of Hiroshima and later presented it to the Hiroshima Peace Museum. To mark the 75th anniversary of the US atomic bombings of Japan, an updated petition was signed by more than 240 people and was sent to and received by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to Nihon Hidankyō, the main A-Bomb survivors (hibakusha) organization in Japan and 2024 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The original petition was composed by Art Laffin and Scott Wright and is the fruit of years of public witness by nuclear abolitionists who met and were inspired by many hibakusha. The petition was cosponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach, the Isaiah Project, the Sisters of Mercy Justice Team, Little Friends for Peace, Jonah House, the Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, and Pax Christi USA. The petition has been used each year at Aug. 6-9 commemoration witnesses at the Pentagon and White House and will be offered again during this commemoration time. The use of the petition for local acts of nonviolent witness is encouraged.
This updated petition for 2025 has been revised to include new developments regarding the increasing danger of nuclear war, a papal proclamation regarding the immorality of possessing nuclear weapons, and the TPNW. It will be sent to the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Nihon Hidankyō, and church leaders.
>>Use this link to add your name and/or the name of your organization to the petition.
Prayers, apologies, and pronouncements are insufficient in a moment of life or death, such as right now when there are truly mentally ill or truly evil polticians who lust for the use of nuclear weapons by NATO against Russia and by Israel against Iran. Our new pope, if he really believes that nuclear armaments could wipe us out, should issue an edict that excommunicates everyone involved in the planning, manufacturing, storage and advocacy of nuclear weapons. Anything else is pietism and wishful thinking.
David-Ross Gerling, PhD
For me, excommunication is yet another form of violence. We need inspired forms of creative nonviolence to face our reality.
We seek forgiveness for the abominable act of using nuclear weapons. May the Spirit of peace with justice prevail over all. No more nuclear weapons. War no more.
Blessings and Peace to you for the sufferings and oppression we caused. We deeply regret the many lives and woundedness. May we be reconciled and work together for peace and harmony.
I have always admired the people of Japan for declaring ” no more war”. I pray you will be able to keep that resolve and that more countries would take your courageous example.
Even though I wasn’t born when the bombs fell, I grew up in the first generation to live within the nuclear shadow. In great sorrow and sincere shame for my country, I can only say, “Dear Lord, never again.”