St Finbarr’s praying for peace

Students at St Finbarr’s School, Ashgrove, have remembered the victims of atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the Second World War at a liturgy.
A group of Year 7 students organised the school’s Hiroshima Peace Day liturgy to allow staff and students to reflect on the message of bringing peace to the world.
The liturgy coincided with the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, and students held a minute’s silence before they hooked up through Skype with principal Ann Hall and teacher Donna Fiechtner, who were attending the ceremony at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima while on leave.
The Peace Memorial Park, sponsored by the city of Hiroshima, was build in memory of the victims of the bombs dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6 1945 and the city of Nagasaki two days later.
Ms Hall and Ms Fiechtner spoke to the Years 5, 6 and 7 students via Skype about the experience of being at the ceremony and also explained how they had placed the hand made, paper cranes made by St Finbarr’s students at the base of the Children’s Peace Monument. The monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children, in particular Sadako Sasaki, who died as a result of the bombing.
Sadako, who died later from radiation poisoning from the effects of the bomb, believed if she folded 1000 paper cranes she would be cured.
Ms Fiechtner told the students she also hoped to bring home a lantern from the lantern ceremony that night to hang in the school as a reminder of peace.
Year 7 student Kaitlyn Hayes said it was an eye-opening experience talking to Ms Hall and Ms Fiechtner at the actual ceremony.
She said it was exciting to be able to see just what it was like over there and how important it was for the Japanese people to remember what happened and to advocate for a peaceful world without atomic bombs.
“It was very emotional both for us students here at St Finbarr’s and for our principal and Ms Fiechtner,” she said.
“We need to show the importance of peace in every way possible,”
“Without peace the world really can’t progress.”
Kaitlyn said young people needed to use their voices to promote peace across the world.