Rejection of the Use of
Nuclear Weapons
During
the immediate post war period, the Pope Pius XII,
John XXIII, and the Second Vatican Council all
spoke out clearly against the use of nuclear
weapons and against the arms race.
When
he traveled to Japan in February 1981, Pope John
Paul II visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki as a
'pilgrim of peace'. At the Peace Memorial Park in
Hiroshima he said:
To remember the
past is to commit oneself to the future.
To remember Hiroshima is to abhor nuclear
war. To remember Hiroshima is to commit
oneself to peace. To remember what the
people of this city suffered is to renew
our faith in man, in his capacity to do
what is good, in his freedom to choose
what is right, in his determination to
turn disaster into a new beginning. In
the face of the man-made calamity that
every war is, one must affirm and
reaffirm, again and again, that the
waging of war is not inevitable or
unchangeable. Humanity is not destined to
self-destruction. Clashes of ideologies,
aspirations and needs can and must be
settled and resolved by means other than
war and violence. Humanity owes it to
itself to settle difference and conflicts
by peaceful means. The great spectrum of
problems facing the many peoples in
varying stages of cultural, social,
economic and political development gives
rise to international tension and
conflict. It is vital for humanity that
these problems should be solved in
accordance with ethical principles of
equity and justice enshrined in
meaningful agreements and institutions.
The international community should thus
give itself a system of law that will
regulate international relations and
maintain peace, just as the rule of law
protects national order.
Pope John Paul II, Appeal for
Peace
25 February 1981, Peace Memorial Park,
Hiroshima
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The Second Vatican Council document
Gaudium et Spes stated that the development of
new, scientific weapons called for "an
evaluation of war with an entirely new attitude"
(n 80). Two years earlier, in the encyclical
Pacem in Terris, Pope John XXIII had noted as one
of the 'signs of the times' the growing
conviction that disputes between states could not
be solved by recourse to arms (n 126). He felt
that, historically, this conviction was based on
the "terrible destructive force of modern
arms", and that it was "... hardly
possible to imagine that in the atomic era war
could be used as an instrument of justice" (n
127).
Applying
traditional Catholic teaching that the use of
force - even in legitimate self defence - must
also distinguish between combatants and non-combatants,
the Second Vatican Council condemned any use of
nuclear weapons as indiscriminate and therefore
immoral:
"Any
act of war aimed indiscriminately at the
destruction of entire cities or extensive areas
along with their population is a crime against
God and man himself. It merits unhesitating
condemnation." (GS No. 80)
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Dangers of Deterrence
The
strategy of nuclear deterrence was also
criticized because it diverted intellectual and
economic resources away from urgent development
needs, and because it did not address the causes
of war
"... the
arms race in which so many countries are
engaged is not a safe way to preserve a
steady peace. Nor is the so-called
balance resulting from this race a sure
and authentic peace. Rather than being
eliminated thereby, the causes of war
threaten to grow gradually stronger.
...the arms race is an utterly
treacherous trap for humanity, and one
which injures the poor to an intolerable
degree. It is much to be feared that if
this race persists, it will eventually
spawn all the lethal ruin whose path it
is now making ready" (GS n 81)
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The Church placed its hope not in a
nuclear balance, but in the development of a
competent international public authority, mutual
trust and verifiable mutual disarmament (GS n 82).
Unless and until such an authority was
established, the right of states to use force in
self defence after all peaceful means had been
exhausted was recognized by the Second Vatican
Council.
There
has been much debate in theological circles over
the morality of possessing nuclear weapons and
the policy of deterrence. In 1982, Pope John Paul
II made the judgement that:
"In current
conditions 'deterrence' based on balance,
certainly not as an end in itself but as
a step on the way toward a progressive
disarmament, may still be judged morally
acceptable. Nonetheless in order to
ensure peace, it is indispensable not to
be satisfied with this minimum which is
always susceptible to the real danger of
explosion".
Pope John Paul II
Message to the General Assembly of the
United Nations
7 June 1982, n 8
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Current Stance
Although
the Church still acknowledges the theoretical
possibility of a justified use of force under
certain conditions (known collectively as the
'Just War Theory'), the practical judgments of
the Church on the use of force in particular
cases as they have arisen has become less and
less accepting of the use of force. The Vatican's
diplomatic efforts at the United Nations, and in
other international fora, towards disarmament
have intensified over the years:
"So long as
it is taken as an end in itself,
deterrence encourages the protagonists to
ensure a constant superiority over one
another, in ceaseless race of over-arming.
The concern of the Holy See
mounts in seeing the non-proliferation
regime, with the NPT as its cornerstone,
in disarray. The old policies of nuclear
deterrence, which prevailed in the Cold
War, must lead now to concrete
disarmament measures. The rule of law
cannot countenance the continuation of
doctrines that hold nuclear weapons as
essential.
There can be no moral acceptance
of military doctrines that embody the
permanence of nuclear weapons. That is
why Pope John Paul II has called for the
banishment of all nuclear weapons through
'a workable system for negotiation, even
of arbitration'. Those nuclear weapons
states resisting negotiations should
therefore be strongly urged to finally
come to the negotiating table.
... my Delegation wishes to
reaffirm its well-known position: nuclear
weapons are incompatible with the peace
we seek for the 21st century; they cannot
be justified. These weapons are
instruments of death and destruction. The
preservation of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty demands unequivocal action towards
their elimination. Only when such a noble
goal is attained can the international
community be assured that nations are
acting in 'good faith'.
... To keep developing weapon
systems that can jeopardize the natural
structure upon which all civilization
rests seriously undermines the genuine
quest of the family of nations to build a
culture of peace for the present and
future generations".
Intervention of Mons. Francis A
Chullikatt for the Holy See Delegation
to the Preparatory Committee for the 2005
Review Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons, 8 April 2002.
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