Holy See urges ratification of
Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
A nuclear test by the United States at Bikini Atoll in 1946. |
Speaking on behalf of Archbishop Bernadito Auza, the Holy
See’s Permanent Observer to the UN in New York, Second Counsellor, Father David
Charters addressed a UN General Assembly discussion on nuclear disarmament on
October 22.
By Robin Gomes
The Holy See has once more expressed grave concern over
the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of the
use of nuclear weapons , and called on all
governments of states who adopted the United Nations Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to sign and ratify it.
Speaking on behalf of Archbishop Bernadito Auza,
the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the UN in New
York, Second Counsellor, Father David Charters made
the call in an address on Monday at a UN General Assembly discussion on nuclear
disarmament.
The TPNW, or the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, that prohibits
the use, threat of use, development, testing, production,
manufacturing and possession of nuclear weapons, will enter into force when 50
states have signed and ratified it.
Fr. Charters warned that a nuclear war or even a
limited use of nuclear weapons would be a catastrophe of unimaginable
proportions, and would kill untold numbers of people and cause tremendous
environmental damage and famine.
Holy See vs nuclear weapons
The Holy See official pointed out that the continued
existence of over 14,000 nuclear weaponsheld by a handful of
countries is one of the greatest moral challenges of our time. Fr.
Charters said that the Catholic Church has been opposing nuclear weapons since
1943.
St. John XXIII called for its ban in his
encyclical “Peace on Earth” and the later popes have consistently called for
the “abolition of these evil instruments of warfare that
create both a false sense of security and foster distrust and disharmony”.
Wasted resources
Fr. Charters pointed out that the Second Vatican Council
condemned nuclear arms race as “an utterly treacherous trap for humanity, and
one that injures the poor to an intolerable degree.”
Fr. Charters noted that maintenance of nuclear weapons
continues to siphon off immense resources that could be devoted,
among other things, to the implementation and achievement of the Sustainable
Development Goals, especially the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.
The Holy See the concern of Pope Francis according to whom
“nuclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be
the basis for an ethics of fraternity and peaceful coexistence.”
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