During the Second World War, an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. A mile around the place of the impact, there was not a soul alive. A desert of death! Yet one house made of a straw thatched roof was left standing near the parish church, 8 blocks from the epicenter of the explosion.
As incredible as it may seem, that house remained absolutely intact. It was the Rectory of the Jesuits. Eight priests lived there. None of them were physically or psychologically affected by the bomb. Not only did they come out of the tragedy alive, but they were in perfect health. They died at an old age many years later. Father Hubert Schiffer, one of the Jesuits, was 30 years old when the bomb exploded. He lived 33 more years in good health before he died in Frankfurt in 1982. In July 1976, at the Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia (USA), he publicly witnessed the whole story. I happened to be there. At the time, the 8 members of the Jesuit community were still alive.
Experts looked into this enigma for years and years, using with the best of instruments and searching with passion the best clues for a hidden force in the construction of the house. How could the house, having nothing special and looking like a simple Japanese house, have possibly resisted such a cataclysm? Also the Jesuits were examined by over 200 scientists.
The conclusion was always the same, they did not understand how these men could have survived in the middle of the hecatomb when all the other living beings had perished by the thousands. As for them, the Jesuits knew. But though they kept on saying the truth and proclaiming it from the rooftops, no one would believe them.
Their answer was not a "scientific"one! Father Hubert explained that he owed this protection to the Blessed Mother since he and his brothers had put into practice what she had asked for in Fatima (1917).He declared to the experts, "I was in the center of the atomic explosion and I am still alive, safe and sound. I was not touched by the bomb." "In our house,", he said, "There was only one thing different from the other houses: each day, we would gather and recite the Rosary together!".
As incredible as it may seem, that house remained absolutely intact. It was the Rectory of the Jesuits. Eight priests lived there. None of them were physically or psychologically affected by the bomb. Not only did they come out of the tragedy alive, but they were in perfect health. They died at an old age many years later. Father Hubert Schiffer, one of the Jesuits, was 30 years old when the bomb exploded. He lived 33 more years in good health before he died in Frankfurt in 1982. In July 1976, at the Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia (USA), he publicly witnessed the whole story. I happened to be there. At the time, the 8 members of the Jesuit community were still alive.
Experts looked into this enigma for years and years, using with the best of instruments and searching with passion the best clues for a hidden force in the construction of the house. How could the house, having nothing special and looking like a simple Japanese house, have possibly resisted such a cataclysm? Also the Jesuits were examined by over 200 scientists.
The conclusion was always the same, they did not understand how these men could have survived in the middle of the hecatomb when all the other living beings had perished by the thousands. As for them, the Jesuits knew. But though they kept on saying the truth and proclaiming it from the rooftops, no one would believe them.
Their answer was not a "scientific"one! Father Hubert explained that he owed this protection to the Blessed Mother since he and his brothers had put into practice what she had asked for in Fatima (1917).He declared to the experts, "I was in the center of the atomic explosion and I am still alive, safe and sound. I was not touched by the bomb." "In our house,", he said, "There was only one thing different from the other houses: each day, we would gather and recite the Rosary together!".
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1 comment:
Jesuits were indeed hurt at Hiroshima. Go to www.companymagazine.org/v231/august6.htm for a first-hand account of Fr. Johannes Siemes, a Jesuit who was there.
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