Prof. James Nolan, Jr.
SCS News:
The Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS), New Mexico Chapter, invites the community to a special invited lecture “A Bell for Nagasaki” by Prof. James Nolan, Jr., at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 15 at the Karen McLaughlin Parish Hall at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, 3700 Canyon Road in Los Alamos. A Mass at 6 p.m. in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will precede the talk in the main church.
Prof. Nolan is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College. He is the author of a number of books including Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (Harvard University Press, 2020). He is the recipient of several grants and awards including a Fulbright scholarship and two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships. Prof. Nolan’s grandfather, Dr. James F. Nolan, was Chief Medical Officer of the Los Alamos site of the Manhattan Project, and one of the first people to enter the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombings in 1945.
Prof. Nolan’s talk will consider the unique manner in which the Nagasaki Catholics responded to the atom bomb that was dropped on their city on Aug. 9, 1945. Against the backdrop of a remarkable history of suffering and perseverance, and informed by a distinctive theology of suffering, the Nagasaki Catholics’ response to the destruction of their city and community offers an inspiring example of joyful hope and endurance.
A defining symbol of this response is the Urakami Cathedral. The largest Catholic church in East Asia at the time, the Cathedral was destroyed by the plutonium bomb, but then painstakingly, and in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds, rebuilt by the community in the years after the war. Included in the new building is one of the original bells recovered from beneath the rubble of the Cathedral ruins. Prof. Nolan will talk about a new effort underway to help replace the bell in the left tower, which has remained empty all these years.
An RSVP to scs.nmchapter@gmail.com will be appreciated. A light dinner will be served, for which a $10 donation is suggested.
About The Society of Catholic Scientists:
The Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS) is an international lay organization founded in June 2016 to foster fellowship among Catholic scientists and to witness to the harmony of faith and reason. The Society is an answer to the call of Pope St. John Paul II that “members of the Church who are active scientists” be of service to those who are attempting to “integrate the worlds of science and religion in their own intellectual and spiritual lives”. In its first eight years, the SCS has grown to more than 2,500 members in more than 60 countries. The SCS is listed in the Official Catholic Directory of the USCCB and is a 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code. The New Mexico Regional Chapter was founded in September 2019, as the first officially recognized regional chapter of SCS in the world. We seek to carry out the mission of the SCS within the New Mexico region.