ADDRESS OF THE
HOLY FATHER
ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Atomic Bomb
Hypocenter Park (Nagasaki)
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Sunday, November 24, 2019
[ Multimedia ]
Dear brothers and sisters!
This place makes us more aware of the pain and horror we can
inflict on us as human beings. The bombed cross and the statue of the
Madonna, recently discovered in the Cathedral of Nagasaki, remind us once again
of the horror untold immediately in their flesh by the victims and their
families.
One of the deepest desires of the human heart is the desire
for peace and stability. The possession of nuclear weapons and other
weapons of mass destruction is not the best answer to this desire; indeed,
they seem to constantly put it to the test. Our world lives the perverse
dichotomy of wanting to defend and guarantee stability and peace on the basis
of a false security supported by a mentality of fear and mistrust, which ends
up poisoning relations between peoples and preventing any possible dialogue.
Peace and international stability are incompatible with any
attempt to build on the fear of mutual destruction or on a threat of total
annihilation; they are possible only from a global ethic of solidarity and
cooperation at the service of a future shaped by interdependence and
co-responsibility in the entire human family of today and tomorrow.
Here, in this city, which is witness to the catastrophic
humanitarian and environmental consequences of a nuclear attack, there will
never be enough attempts to raise the voice against the arms race. This in
fact wastes precious resources that could instead be used for the benefit of
the integral development of peoples and for the protection of the natural environment. In
today's world, where millions of children and families live in inhuman
conditions, the money spent and the fortunes earned to manufacture, modernize,
maintain and sell weapons, ever more destructive, are a continuous attack that
cries out to the sky.
A world in peace, free from nuclear weapons, is the
aspiration of millions of men and women everywhere. Transforming this
ideal into reality requires the participation of everyone: people, religious
communities, civil societies, states that possess nuclear weapons and those
that do not possess them, military and private sectors and international
organizations. Our response to the threat of nuclear weapons must be
collective and concerted, based on the arduous but constant construction of
mutual trust that will break the currently prevalent mistrust dynamics. In
1963, Pope St.
John XXIII in the Encyclical Pacem
in terris , also asking for the prohibition of atomic weapons (see
n. 60), affirmed that a true and lasting international peace cannot rest on the
balance of military forces, but only on mutual trust (see n. 61).
It is necessary to break the mistrust dynamics that currently
prevails and that runs the risk of arriving at the dismantling of the
international arms control architecture. We are witnessing an erosion of
multilateralism , even more serious in the face of the
development of new weapons technologies; this approach seems rather
inconsistent in the current context marked by interconnection and constitutes a
situation that requires urgent attention and also dedication on the part of all
leaders.
The Catholic Church, for its part, is irrevocably committed
to the decision to promote peace between peoples and nations: it is a duty for
which it feels obligated before God and before all the men and women of this
land. We can never tire of working and insisting without delay on the main
international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,
including the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. Last July, the
bishops of Japan launched an appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and
in every month of August the Japanese Church celebrates a ten-day prayer
meeting for peace. May prayer, the tireless search for the promotion of
agreements,
In the belief that a world without nuclear weapons is
possible and necessary, I ask political leaders not to forget that these do not
defend us from threats to national and international security of our
time. We need to consider the catastrophic impact of their use from a
humanitarian and environmental point of view, renouncing to strengthen a
climate of fear, mistrust and hostility, fueled by nuclear doctrines. The
current state of our planet requires, in turn, a serious reflection on how all
these resources could be used, with reference to the complex and difficult
implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, and therefore to
achieve objectives such as integral human development. This is what Pope Paul VI suggested
in 1964, when he proposed to help the most disinherited through a World
Fund , fueled with a part of military expenditure (see Speech
to journalists , Mumbai, 4 December 1964; Enc. Populorum
progressio , 26 March 1967, 51).
For all this, it is crucial to create tools that guarantee
mutual trust and development and to be able to count on leaders who are up to
the circumstances. A task that, in turn, involves us and challenges us
all. No one can be indifferent to the pain of millions of men and women
who still today continue to affect our consciences; no one can be deaf to
the cry of the brother who calls from his wound; no one can be blind to
the ruins of a culture incapable of dialogue.
I ask you to join us in prayer every day for the conversion
of consciences and for the triumph of a culture of life, of reconciliation and
of fraternity. A fraternity that knows how to recognize and guarantee the
differences in the search for a common destiny.
I know that some of those present here are not Catholic, but
I am sure that we can all make our own the prayer for peace attributed to St.
Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where I hate, let me bring love;
where is offense, that I may forgive;
where it is doubtful that I may bring faith;
where there is despair, that I bring hope;
where the darkness is, that I bring the light;
where is sadness, that I bring joy.
where I hate, let me bring love;
where is offense, that I may forgive;
where it is doubtful that I may bring faith;
where there is despair, that I bring hope;
where the darkness is, that I bring the light;
where is sadness, that I bring joy.
In this place of memory, which impresses us and cannot leave
us indifferent, it is even more meaningful to trust in God, so that he teaches
us to be effective instruments of peace and to work so as not to make the same
mistakes as in the past.
May you and your families, and the entire nation, experience
the blessings of prosperity and social harmony!
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