What does the Church really teach about nuclear war?

Vatican City, Nov 17, 2017 / 19:00 pm

A Vatican conference discussing "A World Free From Nuclear Weapons," held Nov. 10-11, is the latest step in a long-term commitment from the Holy See to work for nuclear disarmament, which itself is considered by the Vatican to be a step toward the goal of integral disarmament.
 
The conference was held after 120 nations voted this July to pass the UN's Comprehensive Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  The treaty prohibits signatories from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, acquiring, possessing or stockpiling nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, and prevents them from using these weapons. To date, only three countries have ratified the treaty.
 
The Holy See actively took part in the treaty's negotiations, and is among the three nations that have ratified the treaty
 
The Holy See has a "Permanent Observer" status at the United Nations, although with "enhanced powers." That means that the Holy See can take part in the negotiations of treaties, but does not usually have the right to vote.
 
For the July 7 vote on the nuclear treaty, the Holy See was accepted by the UN to participate in negotiations as a full member, and was permitted to vote on the matter before the adoption of the treaty. This was the first time the Holy See has been afforded such a status at the UN, which Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican's "foreign minister," described as a milestone during the treaties ratification ceremony Sep. 20.
 
This diplomatic initiative shows the strength of the Holy See's commitment to nuclear disarmament.
 
In fact, the Holy See has understood for decades the perilous potential of nuclear weaponry.
 
During the Second World War, Pius XII understood that new scientific developments could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction.
 
Pope Pius XII's concerns were expressed in three different speeches delivered at the Pontifical Academy for Sciences between 1941 and 1948.
 
Talking on Nov. 30, 1941, Pius XII said in the hands of men, science can be a double edged weapon, able to heal and kill at the same time. The Pope also said that he was following "the incredible adventure of the men committed to research on nuclear energy and nuclear transformation" thanks to Max Planck, Nobel Prize Laureate in 1918, who served as member of the Pontifical Academy for Sciences.
 
Pope Pius XII warned about nuclear danger again, in a meeting with members of the Pontifical Academy that took place Feb. 21, 1943. On that occasion, the Pope warned that because of the development of nuclear weapons, "there could be a dangerous catastrophe for our planet as a whole."
 
Finally, in a speech delivered to the Pontifical Academy for Science on Feb. 8, 1948, the Pope talked about the atomic bomb as one of the "most horrible weapons the human mind has ever conceived," and asked: "What disaster should the humanity expect from a future conflict, if stopping or slowing the use of always more and more surprising scientific inventions would be proven impossible? We should distrust any science whose main goal is not love."
 
Like Pius XII, St. John XXIII urged the need for an "integral disarmament" in his encyclical Pacem In Terris, and the Second Vatican Council's Apostolic Constitution Gaudium et Spes stressed that "power of weapons does not legitimate their military and political use."
 
Speaking at the UNESCO June 2, 1980, Pope St. John Paul II explicitly mentioned the "nuclear threat" on the world that could lead to "the destruction of fruits of culture, products of the civilization built in centuries by generation of men who believed in the primacy of the spirit and did not spare efforts nor fatigues."
 
John Paul II noted the "fragile balance" of the world, caused by geopolitical reasons, economic problems and political misunderstandings along with wounded national prides. But, he said, this balance can be destroyed at any moment, following "a mistake in judging, informing, interpreting."
 
He then asked: "Can we still be certain that breaking the balance would not lead to war and to a war that would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons?"
 
Benedict XVI also confronted the issue many times. It is especially noteworthy to recall what Benedict said in his May 31, 2009 Pentecost homily.
 
Benedict XVI stressed that "man does not want to be in the image of God any longer, but only in his own image: he declares himself autonomous, free."
 
A man in such an "unauthentic relation" with God can become dangerous, and "can revolt against life and humanity," as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki tragedies showed, the Pope said.
 
Pope Francis has warned many times about the risks of the nuclear proliferation. In a message sent to the UN Conference for the Negotiation of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, Pope Francis stressed that "International peace and stability cannot be based on a false sense of security, on the threat of mutual destruction or total annihilation, or on simply maintaining a balance of power."
 
"We need – he added - to go beyond nuclear deterrence: the international community is called upon to adopt forward-looking strategies to promote the goal of peace and stability and to avoid short-sighted approaches to the problems surrounding national and international security".
 
The Holy See has followed a clear path on nuclear disarmament, which it continued with this month's conference. The words of Pope Francis at the conference carry the legacy and tradition of the Church's teachings on nuclear weaponry and its danger.

We can not "fail to be genuinely concerned by the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental effects of any employment of nuclear devices," the Pope said.  

"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.  For they exist in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only the parties in conflict but the entire human race.  International relations cannot be held captive to military force, mutual intimidation, and the parading of stockpiles of arms.  Weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons, create nothing but a false sense of security.  They cannot constitute the basis for peaceful coexistence between members of the human family."

Hannah Brockhaus contributed to this report.