Pope Leo XIV on April 26 called for the peaceful and responsible use of nuclear energy, marking the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, according to Vatican News.
Speaking after praying the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square, the pope said the 1986 catastrophe “marked the conscience of humanity,” Vatican News reported.
“We entrust to God’s mercy the victims and all those who still suffer its consequences,” he said.
On April 26, 1986, a reactor exploded at the Soviet-run Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, about 90 kilometers north of Kyiv in Ukraine, killing 31 people immediately and causing thousands more deaths in the years that followed due to radiation exposure.
The pope warned of the risks associated with increasingly powerful technologies and stressed the need for careful discernment in their use.
“I hope that at all levels of decision-making, discernment and responsibility may always prevail, so that every use of atomic energy may be at the service of life and peace,” the pope concluded.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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