By Tim Devereux (St Joseph’s Pudsey & Leeds Pax Christi)
Our Bishop, Marcus Stock, has signed Christian CND’s ecumenical statement by clergy for the 75th Hiroshima/Nagasaki anniversary (6th & 9th August); my Parish Priest Father Peter Kravos has signed it; and yes, I did ask them to, and they responded promptly and positively. The statement does not mince words:
“As Christians we reject nuclear weapons. We believe that their capacity to indiscriminately kill millions of our brothers and sisters, and to catastrophically destroy God’s creation, makes them contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ.”
It echoes the words of Pope Francis, who said in 2017 that humanity cannot fail
“to be genuinely concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of any employment of nuclear devices. If we also take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error of any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned …” (emphasis added).
Our Church has moved on from accepting the Cold War-era global system of nuclear ‘deterrence’ and mutually assured destruction.
Yet our Government clings to its delusions of nuclear club grandeur, and in the face of reason,
economics and morality, pursues a £205,000,000 up-grade of the Trident nuclear weapons system.
Pax Christi are running morning reflections at 8am between 6th August and 9th August. See their event calendar at https://paxchristi.org.uk/news-and-events/events-calendar/
Or email info@paxchristi.org.uk to ask them to send you the link to the first Zoom session
The statement and list of signatories are at: https://christiancnd.org.uk/statement-on-the-anniversary-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki-bombings/