The Catholic Nuclear Initiative and Purpose of Colloquium

Remarks to the Colloquium on Catholic Approaches to Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament, London

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Thank you, Mr. Pöner, for your kind introduction.  And thank you, Bishop Lang, for your warm welcome.  We are grateful that the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales was so kind as to co-host and help organize this Colloquium. The U.S. bishops have valued working closely with the bishops’ conferences of England and Wales, Germany, France, and other European nations on many concerns over the years.  We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with you on this Colloquium and hope we might find new ways to work together on nuclear disarmament.

I also wanted to join Bishop Lang in thanking our other co-host of this event, Lord Browne of Ladyton, who has done so much to help plan this Colloquium, and his colleague, Lord McFall of Alcluith, who will host us at Millbank House tomorrow.  

My brother bishops from Europe and the United States, scholars and policy makers, I am honored and humbled to have been asked to speak to you today on “The Catholic Nuclear Initiative and the Purpose of the Colloquium.” 

There was a time in the 1980’s and 1990’s when the Catholic voice on nuclear weapons rang loud and clear and had a major impact on decision makers working on nuclear policy. At least that was true in my country, particularly in regards to injecting moral concerns into the policy debate. We have remained consistent in our teachings, our scholarship and our advocacy. But I think if we’re honest, we will acknowledge that there are fewer Catholic leaders and scholars today who are conversant with the issues.  So, with the notable exception of the work of the Holy See, the Catholic voice is somewhat diminished, or at least the scope and depth of engaged Catholic leadership is less than it once was.

So that’s why we’re here – to revitalize and strengthen the voice of the Catholic community in the debate on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. We want to educate and empower new generations of Catholic leaders on the ethical and policy arguments for reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons.

To do that we need to better prepare ourselves to respond to theological and ethical questions related to nuclear deterrence and nuclear disarmament. We need to be able to address the concerns of non-nuclear states that they are being discriminated against. We need to be able to respond to the challenges posed by “irrational” nuclear states, such as North Korea, as well as to the possibility of “nuclear” terrorism. 

These are the purposes of our colloquium: 

• To give those of us who are not specialists an overview of the most important issues involved in creating a world without nuclear weapons;
• To focus on policy issues where we, as religious leaders and ethicists, can make a distinct contribution; and 
• To examine new theological and ethical issues related to reducing reliance on nuclear deterrence and to ensuring that nuclear weapons are never used again.

In the United States, a group of Catholic organizations, most of which are represented here in London, have committed themselves to revitalizing Catholic engagement on nuclear disarmament. This effort in the United States is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, in collaboration with the U.S. bishops’ Office of International Justice and Peace; Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; and Boston College.  The generous support of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), headed by former Senator Sam Nunn, has made this possible.  I would like to acknowledge Lord Browne of Ladyton, Vice Chairman of NTI; Shirley Williams, a Member of NTI’s board; and Carmen MacDougall, NTI’s Vice President for Communications.  Thank you for your invaluable support for our efforts.     

The U.S. initiative began with a gathering of bishops, scholars and policymakers much like the one we are engaged in here these two days.  That gathering was held in April 2014 at Stanford University and hosted by former Secretary of State George Schultz and former Secretary of Defense William Perry. 

In October 2014, we gathered Catholic scholars from a wide array of U.S. institutions to discuss the theological and ethical imperatives of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament and to encourage more scholarship in this area.

In April 2015, I participated in a conference entitled “Nuclear Weapons and the Moral Compass” sponsored by the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York. This event was aimed at an international audience. 

In May 2015, partly in reaction to concerns being raised about the P5+1 agreement with Iran, we arranged for a panel discussion in New York, “From Nuclear Deterrence to Disarmament: Evolving Catholic Perspectives,” at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, a prestigious think tank.

And ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the United States in September 2015, we arranged a panel in Washington with the catchy title, “The Pope and the Bomb: New Nuclear Dangers and Moral Dilemmas.” 

While the United States bears an especially heavy moral burden in addressing nuclear proliferation and moving toward nuclear disarmament, it is a burden shared with many other countries, especially nuclear powers and those who rely on the nuclear umbrella.  Therefore, as we continue efforts to strengthen the Catholic voice in the United States, we wanted to engage with colleagues in Europe so that we could benefit from each other’s insights on how to strengthen the Catholic contribution to the nuclear debate in our respective countries.  We are grateful that several of our European counterparts agreed to co-sponsor this event: the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales; the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops’ Conference of France; the German Bishops’ Conference; and the Theology and Peace Institute in Hamburg, which is part of the Catholic Military Pastoral Care Service.

In terms of actions taken by U.S. bishops, over the years, I, and my predecessors as chairs of the Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, have sent letters to Congress and to the Executive Branch of the U.S. government laying out Catholic teaching on nuclear concerns. The bishops issued a landmark pastoral letter in 1983 called “The Challenge of Peace” in which they argued that “Deterrence is not an adequate strategy as a long-term basis for peace.” Ten years later in “The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace,” the U.S. bishops maintained, “The eventual elimination of nuclear weapons is more than a moral ideal; it should be a policy goal.”

But you are as aware as I am that, as valuable as these conferences and statements are in defining the issues and buttressing the arguments against nuclear proliferation and nuclear deterrence, for us to succeed, these issues must be adopted by a broader audience to have an impact. 

To that end, efforts are being made to generate more coverage of the nuclear issue in Catholic publications and blogs. In addition, by involving Catholic universities in nuclear disarmament issues and the Global Zero movement and providing them with resources such as films and speakers, we are attempting to energize young people to spread the word through social media. 

There is a need to empower many segments of our societies, from bishops to ethicists, opinion makers and youth, to take up the debate on nuclear disarmament and work to make it part of the public and policy discourse today. 

Ultimately, the moral dilemma of nuclear weapons is not about principles and Church statements.  It is about people.  In August last year, I visited Japan for the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It was a life changing experience.

Both cities look peaceful today, but their museums hold the memory of the devastation and destruction that was wrought – bodies charred and burned, others so quickly incinerated that only their shadows etched on stone remain, and survivors severely disfigured by radiation exposure. 

I heard the moving testimony of Sr. Lucia who, as a 10-year-old girl, was at a school 8 kilometers from the epicenter of the blast. For years she sealed away those horrific memories of death and destruction. But now she decided it was time to share those memories – to convey, as she put it, “the reality of the war.” 
I came away humbled by the commitment of Catholic Bishops of Japan and of so many Japanese people, not just the survivors, but young people too, to work for peace and a world without nuclear weapons. 

As we gather here today, President Obama is heading to Japan for the G-7 summit, after which we understand that he will visit Hiroshima. He will be the first U.S. President to do so. I am sure that he will come away moved, as I was, by the experience. It is my hope that the images of Hiroshima will be seared in his mind, as the blast seared its unfortunate victims, and give greater impetus in the waning days of his Administration to a commitment for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Pope Francis, in his 2014 message to a UN gathering in Vienna, greeted the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and called for more attention to “unnecessary suffering.” The Holy Father affirmed that “[n]uclear deterrence and the threat of mutually assured destruction cannot be the basis for an ethic of fraternity and peaceful coexistence among peoples and states. The youth of today and tomorrow deserve far more.”

Pope Francis challenged us by saying that “[n]ow is the time to counter the logic of fear with the ethic of responsibility, and so foster a climate of trust and sincere dialogue.” 

It is my hope that this colloquium will do much to foster that climate of trust and sincere dialogue among Catholics and the broader public and will lead to more commitments to work for a nuclear weapons-free world. It is the best option, and indeed the only option, for the long-term survival of humanity. As Pope Emeritus Benedict declared plainly, “In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims.”