VATICAN CITY (CNS): Fifteen years later, Ukraine’s Chernobyl disaster serves to remind humanity that scientific and technological progress must respect human needs and nature, Pope John Paul II said.
“Recalling the tragic effects provoked by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident, thoughts turn to future generations,” the pope said April 26, the disaster’s anniversary.
“It is necessary to prepare for them a future of peace, free from fears and similar threats,” he said.
“May what we remember today with sadness never repeat itself.”
The pope made his remarks during a meeting with several hundred Ukrainian children and the Italian families hosting them for medical treatment related to the radiation leak.
In Ukraine, more than a million children are considered affected by the 1986 nuclear disaster, which sent a radioactive cloud over much of Europe.
