Augusta, GA priest in trouble for traveling to Japan to apologize for atomic bombings

Fr. Robert Cushing has been relieved of his duties as his Augusta, Ga., parish because of negative backlash resulting from his decision to travel on a pilgrimage to Japan to apologize to the Japanese people for the United States’ use of atomic bombs on two of their cities 60 years ago.

Cushing planned to spend Aug. 6, the 60th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, concelebrating Mass there with 20 to 30 other priests. Three days later in 1945, the U.S. bombed Nagasaki, the city with Japan’s largest concentration of Catholics.

Cushing, 55, is scheduled to return to Georgia Aug. 12. His pastor, Fr. Thomas Payton at St. Teresa of Avila Parish, has asked Cushing to leave at the end of the month because coverage of Cushing’s pilgrimage in the diocesan paper and The Augusta Chronicle caused an outcry, including numerous letters to the editor to the Chronicle criticizing Cushing.