Fr. Bob Cushing left Georgia amid a storm of controversy over his decision to make a pilgrimage for reconciliation to Japan.

But there he found affirmation as he delivered an apology to the Japanese people for the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Cushing, a priest of the Savannah diocese, returned Aug. 12. He plans to begin a process of healing in Augusta, the heavily pro-military community in which many people saw his mission to apologize as misguided or worse.

His pastor, Fr. Thomas Peyton of St. Teresa of Avila Parish, has asked Cushing, who serves as parochial vicar for the parish, to leave at the end of the month because of the controversy surrounding the pilgrimage (NCR, Aug. 12). No official announcement of Cushing's termination has been released by Peyton or the diocese.

Cushing said he was invited to read his letter of apology in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities leveled by atomic bombs 60 years ago. His letter was translated into Japanese, and his visit was embraced by two Japanese bishops, other bishops and scores of Japanese Catholics....