Finding Fatima: Documentary of Miracle at Hiroshima

YouTube - What is Fatima

The Following information regarding the Fatima miracle is part of a new DVD documentary from Grass Roots Pictures and is posted on YouTube.  For further information, please visit the following link: FindingFatimaDVD.com

What is Fatima? The new documentary opens on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

Eight Jesuit priests living just 8 blocks from the blast site miraculously survived the atomic blast. Everyone else within a radius of roughly 1.5 Kilometres was reportedly killed instantly, and those outside the range died of radiation within days. However, the only physical harm to Fr. Shiffer was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck.  Father Shiffer believed they survived because they were living the message of Fatima.      End

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Note: The following story is in my earlier blog post of March 14, 2010.  However, FindingFatimaDVD.com recently contacted me through email regarding the release of new documentaries about the Fatima message.  As a result, I am reposting Father Paul's interview with Fr. Shiffer to highlight the Hiroshima miracle and the new DVD production.   

The following interview was conducted by Father Paul Ruge with Fr. Hubert Schiffer, a survivor of the atomic blast at Hiroshima.  Father Paul is currently the spiritual advisor at The Blue Army Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The Catholic shrine is part of the World Apostolate of Fatima, USA, and is located in Washington, New Jersey.   The interview conducted by Father Paul with additional information on the events of August 6, 1945 can read at the following link: HolySouls.com 
                                                                                                                 

FR. SCHIFFER OF HIROSHIMA
by Fr. Paul Ruge, O.F.M.I.

At 2:45 a.m. on August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber took off from the island of Tinian to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan. At 8:15 a.m. the bomb exploded eight city blocks from the Jesuit Church of Our Lady's Assumption in Hiroshima. Half a million people were annihilated. However, the church and four Jesuit fathers stationed there survived: Fathers Hugo Lassalle, Kleinsorge, Cieslik and Schiffer. (RH note - all other accounts state clearly that there were eight Jesuits stationed in this home not four - and it is well known that all eight survived - the author of this present article apparently only had the names of four of them, for instance Fr. Arrupe is left out of the list - and at this writing, I have not been able to find the names of the other three Jesuits. end of note.) According to the experts they "ought to be dead," being within a one-mile radius of the explosion. Nine days later on August 15, Feast of Our Lady's Assumption, U.S. forces were ordered to cease fire.

(This is the incredible story of the late Fr. Hubert Schiffer, as retold by Fr. Paul Ruge.)

 I met Fr. Schiffer in the late 70s at the Tri-City Airport in Saginaw, Michigan, as he was going to give a talk for the Blue Army Novena/Triduum. As I chauffeured him around he told me stories of his life, especially of the atomic explosion at Hiroshima. On the morning of August 6, 1945, he had just finished Mass, went into the rectory and sat down at the breakfast table, and had just sliced a grapefruit, and had just put his spoon into the grapefruit when there was a bright flash of light. His first thought was that it was an explosion in the harbor (this was a major port where the Japanese refueled their submarines.)

Then, in the words of Fr. Schiffer: "Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunderstroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and 'round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind." The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground.

The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. Many thousands were killed or maimed by the explosion. After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. Many of the Japanese people had blisters and sores from the radiation. To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary. He feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects. (This coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki where St. Maximilian Kolbe had established a Franciscan Friary which was also unharmed because of special protection from the Blessed Mother, as the Brothers too prayed the daily Rosary and also had no effects from the bomb.)