Los Alamos Peace Vigil, 2008
Every year the Pax Christi NM sponsors a peace vigil commemorating the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 2008, the vigil began on Aug. 1 with Liturgy celebrated by Father John Dear. Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ spoke on the escalation of death when we disrespect the dignity of life. Death of folks on death row, war, violence of every kind is able to be “justified” when we loose our moral fiber as a nation, as a people. She kept asking “How did we get to this point?”
On Aug. 2, the Peace Vigil took place at Los Alamos, the site of the construction of the A-Bomb. With sack cloths and ashes we proceed down the street and at the appointed time, we sat on the side-walk with our sack cloths and spread the ashes in front of us. We sat in silence for 30 minutes. Then went back to Ashley Park to bring closure to the event. It was a powerful display of prayer and sense of repentence.