Drawing from the Church's long-held teaching on the morality of war, a member of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace called upon attendees ata nuclear deterrence symposium to work to rid the world of nuclear weapons.Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of Baltimore told an audience of 500 people gathered for the military-sponsored symposium in Omaha, NE July 29 that the abolishment of nuclear weapons was an issue of "fundamental moral values that should unite people across national and ideological boundaries."
"Our world and its leaders must stay focused on the destination of a nuclear weapons-free world and on the concrete steps that lead there," he said. "Especially in a world with weapons of mass destruction and at a time when nations...are reportedly seeking to build such weapons, we must pursue a world in which fewer nuclear states have fewer nuclear weapons."
Repeatedly citing the U.S. Bishops 1983 pastoral letter on peace, "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and our Response," and statements from three popes on the morality of possessing nuclear weapons, Archbishop O'Brient held out hope that the goal of worldwide nuclear disarmament could be realized.
In an interview prior to his address, Archbishop O'Brien told Catholic News Service that symposium attendees, representing the defense industry, military and academia, seemed to recognize the urgency needed to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles.
"There's a lot of good will here," said the archbishop, the former head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services. "They'd like to see results but they realize, as professionals, what the obstacles are.
"They have to be convinced that step by stem this is going to take time, it's going to take perseverance, but that it's worth the effort and a matter of encouraging each other, getting national consensus."
The deterrence symposium, the first sponsored by the U.S. Strategic Command based at Offut Air Force Base south of Omaha, brought together a wide audience concerned about arms control to explore the issues related to the existence of nuclear weapons as part of American military and foreign policy.
Saying in his speech that we was "asked to offer more challenge than comfort" in his presentation, Archbishop O'Brien reminded the gathering of the Fifth Commandment's admonition against killing. He explained that in Catholic teaching all life is considered sacred because every person is created in the image and likeness of God.
A former military chaplain, the archbishop briefly reviewed the church's traditional teaching on just war, developed 16 centuries ago by St. Augustine, which outlines the conditions under which countries can wage war.
The ultimate goal of the Catholic Church, he explained, is a world without hostilities.
"It must be said at the outset that our church supports building international agreements and structures that will make war ever less likely as a means of resolving disputes between nations and peoples,' he said. "Ultimately we must work for a world without war."
He repeated the words of Pope Paul VI in his 1965 address to the United Nations and echoed later by Pope John Paul II: "No more war, war never again."
"The international community must seek ways to make war a relic of humanity's past if humanity is to have a future worthy of human dignity," he said.
He said the "moral path to zero" nuclear weapons will be difficult, but is achievable. The path is marked by signposts, among them the realization that nuclear deterrence produces only "peace of a sort," he said.
"Peace is more than the absence of war," he explained. "It is built painstakingly on the foundation of justice and human rights. Tragically the vast resources devoted to acquiring ever new weapons can rob nations of the resources needed to address the causes of human suffering and conflict."
The archbishop, who served as head of the military archdiocese for 10 years until his appointment to Baltimore in 2007, quoted Pope John Paul in saying that nuclear deterrence - possessing nuclear weapons to prevent other nations from using them - should not be a goal in itself, but only a step on the path to nuclear disarmament.
The ongoing quest for new weapons systems, he said, must be considered from a moral perspective.
"It is not morally acceptable to aim for nuclear superiority instead of sufficiency," Archbishop O
Brien said. "It is not morally legitimate to develop new nuclear weapons for new missions such as to counter non-nuclear threats or to make them smaller and more 'usable' as bunker busters."
The archbishop urged the gathering to support efforts to negotiate new treaties governing nuclear weapons.
He called the early July signing by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of a joint understandiung to guide negotiations on reducing strategic warheads before the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires later this year an important step.
He also said the Vatican supports the 2010 review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which would continue efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons-grade material.
Furthermore, he said, by entering into a new Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which would end tests of new nuclear weapons, the world's nuclear states can demonstrate that they are "serious about their commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world."
"The moral end is clear: a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons," he said. "This goal should guide our efforts. Every nuclear weapons system and every nuclear weapons policy should be judged by the ultimate goal of protecting human life and dignity and the related goal of ridding the world of these weapons in mutually verifiable ways."
(From Catholic News Service. The full text of the Archbishop's comments can be found at www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/nuclearzero.shtml
