New Delhi, July 20 -- A Nagasaki cathedral has blessed the final piece to complete its restoration nearly 80 years after being destroyed by the second U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Japan: a reproduction of its lost bell restored by a group of Americans.

The new bell was blessed and named the "St. Kateri Bell of Hope," by Peter Michiaki Nakamura, archbishop of Nagasaki, at the Urakami Cathedral in a ceremony Thursday attended by more than 100 followers and other participants.

The bell is scheduled to be hung inside the cathedral, filling the empty bell tower for the first time, on Aug. 9, the anniversary of the bombing.

The U.S. bomb that was dropped Aug. 9, 1945, fell near the cathedral, killing two priests and 24 followers inside among ...