“In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day. In that house we were living the Message of Fatima,”
Quote from Father Hubert Schiffer on how he escaped serious and deadly injury from being at Ground Zero in the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Blast on August 6th, 1945
It seems fitting that we should talk about the call to praying the rosary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in August given it is the month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary whose feast will be on August 22. With the Feast of St. Philomena, the little patroness of the Universal Rosary on August 11 and the Feast of the Assumption on August 15, we have such wonderful reminders to hearken to the plea of Our Mother to pray the rosary! These are such beautiful feasts celebrated in a month of beautiful sunny, warm days of summer!
However, there are other anniversaries that are not so fond to remember…though sadly, we must in order to not repeat this regrettable past… I am afraid that we have forgotten these days…but they have not been so much forgotten, as much as never taught any more to the greater majority of the Catholic Faithful.
Just over two weeks ago an event occurred that recalled historical events of great tragedy. This event was an explosion that caused a mushroom type cloud… videos of this event suggest a missile hitting the port in Beirut on August 5, 2020. It was not widely reported.
But which historical dates am I referring to, you might ask?
They are the woeful dates of the dropping of the atom bombs during WWII on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and Nagasaki August 9, 1945– 2 of the most Catholic populated cities in Japan that experts say killed at least 150,000 collectively.
Nagasaki had been the most Catholic city in Japan at that time. (Picture on left: August 9, 1945. The atomic mushroom over Nagasaki)
And yet despite these sad events, there were two separate instances of Our Lady’s protective mantle shielding some from annihilation of the bomb blast. An uplifting story about a group of priests that were living just 8 blocks from ground zero in Hiroshima has been retold by one of the priests perhaps 100’s of times. This priest even wrote a booklet about his experience. These priests had taken care of the Jesuit Church of Our Lady’s Assumption in Hiroshima. Fr. Hubert Schiffer a German Jesuit priest recalled what happened the moment the bomb hit.
“Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me ’round and ’round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind.”— Fr. Hubert Schiffer
The four priests lived in a rectory within the area of complete atomic destruction. After the shock of the blast, they looked around and saw NOTHING; for miles in every direction, thousands of people were dead, and every building was destroyed… Except for the four priests and their rectory. Although wounded, they survived, and afterwards suffered no radiation sickness.
“It took only a second: a flash— fearfully frightening—and Hiroshima, home of half a million people, was wiped off the earth. What was left was only darkness, blood, burns, moans, fire and spreading terror.”
Asked why they believe they were spared, when so many others died either from the explosion or from the subsequent radiation, Father Schiffer spoke for himself and his companions:
“We believe that we survived because we were living the message of Fatima. We lived and prayed the rosary daily in that home.”
Over the years, some 200 scientists have examined the priests, trying to determine why they were unhurt and were left untouched by the effects of radiation?
Speaking on American TV, the German Jesuit Father Hubert Schiffer gave the startling answer:
“In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day.
In that house we were living the Message of Fatima,”