Sound a Bell, Take a Step, Be a Peacemaker
- Tom Faletti
- Aug 29
- 6 min read
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” But how do you take a step for peace? James Nolan offers an example of how to respond to an opportunity for reconciliation.
What difference can a bell make?
The atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, inflicted widespread death and destruction and permanently silenced one of the two bells of the city’s Urakami Cathedral.
Exactly 80 years later, a replacement bell rang out for the first time, a gift to Urakami Cathedral from Christians in the United States who commissioned the bell as a tangible act of peacemaking and solidarity.
Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9).
How can you or I be a peacemaker? What can one person do? Let me tell you the story of James Nolan.
The devastation of Nagasaki
The U.S. bombing of Nagasaki resulted in the death of 74,000 of Nagasaki’s 240,000 residents, upended the lives countless people who survived, and destroyed the fabric of many communities.
Urakami Cathedral served the city’s Catholics. Approximately 8,500 its 12,000 parishioners were killed. A nation that saw itself as a “Christian nation” destroyed the cathedral at the heart of Christian activity in Nagasaki and more than half of its church members.
The bomb detonated approximately 500 meters from the cathedral, reducing it to rubble.
The bell that had hung in one tower of the Cathedral was dug out of the rubble and saved, but the bell from the other tower was totally destroyed.
When the cathedral was rebuilt in 1959, the surviving bell was re-installed in the right tower of the new edifice, but the bell that was destroyed was not replaced. The left tower remained silent.
(For more about Nagasaki Christians’ nearly 500-year history of faith in the face of persecution and adversity, see Nagasaki - A History of Christian Faithfulness in Adversity.)
What can one person do?
In the spring of 2023, one person, a parishioner of Urakami Cathedral, suggested to an American professor that perhaps American Catholics could donate a bell for the left tower of the cathedral.
The professor, James L. Nolan, Jr., of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, thought that was a great idea. He wondered if Christians from the United States could pay for the cost of casting a new bell, shipping it to Nagasaki, and having it installed in the cathedral.
Professor Nolan was just one person, but he decided to do something.
Professor Nolan’s interest in Nagasaki began when he learned that his grandfather, Dr. James F. Nolan, had worked as an ob-gyn radiologist and doctor for the Manhattan Project, which produced the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dr. Nolan had been sent to those two cities a month after the bombings to assess the damage, and Professor Nolan had gone to Nagasaki to learn more about his father’s work.
Professor Nolan thought that a replacement bell could bring alive Jesus’s teachings about peacemaking.
It was a big vision for one person. But one plus one plus one can eventually create a network for action. James Nolan took a step for peace.
He got the support of the St. Kateri Institute at Williams College. With their help, he launched a fundraising drive that eventually gathered donations from more than 600 people.
The bell was manufactured and shipped, and James Nolan’s vision became a reality.
A new bell rings out
On August 9, 2025, at 11:02 AM, exactly 80 years after the atomic bomb blast, a new bell rang out from the left tower of Urakami Cathedral. (My archbishop, Cardinal Robert McElroy, was there. My own part in this story is only the small contribution I made toward the funding of the new bell.)
At a ceremony at which the bell was blessed, Nolan spoke on behalf of all who had joined the cause, saying that American Catholics “expressed sorrow, regret, sadness, and a wish for forgiveness and reconciliation.”
That is what peacemakers work for: forgiveness and reconciliation.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
What is a peacemaker?
Almost everyone claims to want peace, but not everyone is a peacemaker.
To understand what a peacemaker is, it helps to hyphen the word like this: peace-maker. A peacemaker is someone who makes peace. Someone who not just hopes for it, not just prays for it, not just welcomes it if it shows up, but makes it. It is the peacemakers whom Jesus blesses.
Consider the opposite: a troublemaker. A person can dream up many ways of stirring things up, but if a person does not actually make trouble, they aren’t a troublemaker, just a silent dissenter. It is the doing that makes the troublemaker, and it is the doing that makes the peacemaker.
James Nolan was a peacemaker. He took action to create a symbol of peace that, in its small way, brought people together in reconciliation.
How can we be peacemakers?
Robert Nolan’s story offers some hint for how to be a peacemaker:
It helps if you know a little history. If you don’t know what has transpired previously that has upset the peace between people, you are unlikely to be able to understand how to bring people back together.
Peacemaking needs a practical vision. The peacemaker sees a path forward in the strife, an achievable step to reduce friction or help bring people together.
Peacemaking requires the involvement of others. Peacemaking only happens when we are able to bring others on board and help them see our vision. And sometimes, our vision requires that a lot of people chip in.
Peacemaking takes a lot of hard work. For difficult issues, peace isn’t made in a day. It may take years. There is usually a lot of hard work, and often a lot of back and forth and creative revision of our idea, before it all comes together.
Blessed are those who find ways to build bridges wherever they are
Not everyone is called to a public demonstration of peacemaking like James Nolan. For many of us, the opportunities are smaller and less visible.
Many years ago, I was in a parish where a new pastor announced that all parish groups would henceforth have to pay a fee to use the parish facilities. This produced an uproar. Groups that provided prayer, service, and social opportunities did not think it was right to force them to raise money to pay for using the parish hall. I and other leaders of my prayer group played a mediating role between the groups and the pastor and worked to restore peace in the parish and address the concerns of the pastor without charging every group for every church meeting.
Your parish may have its own rifts that need the reconciling help of a peacemaker.
People often find themselves in a position where they can make peace by facilitating reconciliation between people in their family.
Some people get involved with groups such as Pax Christi USA that seek to promote peace on the world stage.
Some people find that the place where a peacemaker is needed is in their workplace, building bridges between workers who are in conflict or between employees and management.
All of these are valuable ways people can promote peace.
Where might you be called to help make peace?
The apostle Paul had to deal with a situation in Philippi where a peacemaker was needed. In his letter to the Philippians, he wrote, “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel” (Phil. 4:2-3a, NRSV).
Paul needed someone there in the Philippian church to step in as a peacemaker. Anyone who works for peace is a “loyal companion” as our God works for peace.
Is there an area of disagreement or strife where you might be called to be a peacemaker and foster reconciliation? How can you take action as a real peacemaker, and not just someone who hopes for peace?
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
You can explore more questions about how to apply Matthew 5:9 and what it means to be a peacemaker here:
Matthew 5:6-12: Blessed are those who are focused on what God cares about (see the section labeled Verse 9).
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