Saint Francis of Assisi is renowned as a peacemaker and sets the example for all Franciscans to follow. A week after the 78th anniversaries of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic weapons, Bishop Wayne Berndt of the Diocese of Naha and Fr. Claver D’Souza represented the Catholic Church at the annual inter-religious peace prayer in Okinawa, Japan, on Aug. 15. The ceremony took place in the Prayer Hall at the Peace Monument. The large statue that resembles a Buddha is titled The Spirit of Prayer and was created by an Okinawan Catholic sculptor.