Tony Magliano

Compelling Catholic Church Reflections on Peace and Nuclear Disarmament

This is the edited transcript of the presentation by Tony Magliano to Panel 2, “Peace Through Development,” of the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 22 conference, “For World Peace—Stop the Danger of Nuclear War: Third Seminar of Political and Social Leaders of the World.” Mr. Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. The full proceedings of the conference are available at the Schiller Institute website.

Before I begin sharing with you a few of the Catholic Church’s critical thoughts on peace and nuclear disarmament, I would first like to thank Helga for her dedicated work in promoting this international dialogue. Thanks, Helga.

In Hiroshima, the first World War II Japanese city to be incinerated by a U.S. nuclear bomb, Pope Francis, standing before the A-bomb dome, spoke with heartfelt sentiments, saying:

Here, in an incandescent burst of lightning and fire, so many men and women, so many dreams and hopes, disappeared, leaving behind only shadows and silence. In barely an instant, everything was devoured by a black hole of destruction and death.

And with prophetic warning, Pope Francis declared that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral. We will be judged by God on all of this. During his conversation with journalists on the flight back to Rome from his recent pastoral visit to Bahrain, Pope Francis shared his thoughts on many of the world’s current human-made tragedies, including today’s numerous armed conflicts, which reminded him of the World War II Allied military landings in Normandy, France. He said:

It was the beginning of the fall of Nazism, it’s true. But how many boys were left on the beaches in Normandy? They say thirty thousand.... Who thinks of those boys? War sows all of this. That is why you, who are journalists, please be pacifists, speak out against wars, fight against wars. I ask you as a brother. Thank you.

In the days leading up to President Putin’s decision to order invading Russian troops into Ukraine, Pope Francis, in an apparent effort to jolt the conscience of the Russian leader, as well as the consciences of all of us, made this appeal: “Let us not forget, war is madness.” And he lamented, “Those who wage war forget humanity. How sad it is when persons and peoples think about waging war against each other.”

And to all this madness, the Holy Father boldly declared,

Put down your weapons! God is with the peacemakers, not with those who use violence.

There are many forms that the evil of violence and war take: There is war against the poor and hungry, war against migrants and refugees, war against the homeless, war against other religions, war against women, war against the Earth and the environment, and war against unborn babies.

In her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, in 1979, St. Mother Theresa of Kolkata, insightfully said:

I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing. If a mother can murder her own child in her own womb, what is left for me to kill you and for you to kill me—there is nothing between.

On Nov. 17, 2017, five other Nobel Peace laureates met with Pope Francis at the Vatican for the international symposium, entitled, “Prospects for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons and for the Integral Human Development.” In their statement, the Nobel Peace laureates said:

Banning nuclear weapons and promoting peace and integral disarmament means putting humanity first, putting our minds together to meet the serious challenges humanity faces: climate change, a globalized economy that glorifies the accumulation of wealth for wealth’s sake, and cares little for meeting the needs of the majority of the billions of people sharing our climate; and terrorism of all kinds, including that of the state, to name just a few.

On Sept. 20, of that same year, 2017, the Holy See was the first state to ratify the UN’s Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In a statement to the United Nations, the Holy See declared:

[The] Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is one more blow on the anvil toward the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.”

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons is an essential tool in efforts to totally prohibit nations from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using, or threatening to use nuclear weapons, or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory. It also prohibits them from assisting, encouraging, or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities.

Irresponsibly, none of the nine nuclear weapons nations has signed onto the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. But encouragingly, 91 nations are signatories, and the Treaty now has 68 State Parties with the Holy See as one of the very first. In his Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris, Peace on Earth, St. Pope John XXIII wrote:

When we fight poverty and oppose the unfair conditions of the present, we are not just promoting human well-being; we are also furthering man’s spiritual and moral development, and hence we are benefiting the whole human race. For peace is not simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day toward the establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form of justice among men and women.[fn_1]

With over 800 million fellow human beings struggling to survive on less than the international poverty line of just $1.90/day, and with 300 million children going to bed hungry every night, the world’s more economically secure nations have a moral responsibility to end this tragedy as quickly as possible.

Pope John Paul said:

If “development is the new name for peace,” war and preparations for war are the major enemy of the healthy development of peoples. If we take the common good of all humanity as our norm, instead of individual greed, peace would indeed be possible. [Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, Encyclical Letter, Dec. 30, 1987]

On Sept. 7, 2013, countless believers across the globe—and there were 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square—prayed with Pope Francis for peace in Syria and throughout the world. During the four-hour prayer service at St. Peter’s, the Holy Father said:

We bring about the rebirth of Cain in every act of violence and in every war.... We have perfected our weapons, while our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!

Let us commit ourselves, not to death but to developing a world of peace based on justice and equality among all men and women.

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