Wars have always caused needless suffering, destruction and death. But 81 years ago, the hell of war reached a new all-time immoral low when on August 6, 1945 a United States Boeing B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima instantly killing over 70,000 – mostly civilian children, women and men.
And again, just three days later, on August 9, 1945 the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing at least 60,000 people – again mostly civilians. Ironically, Nagasaki was the center of Japanese Catholicism.
Since then, eight additional nations have acquired nuclear weapons: Russia, China, Great Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
The extremely dangerous fact that today nine nations possess nuclear weapons far more deadly and destructive than the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan should cause sane, morally decent people to demand that their governments quickly work to completely dismantle every single one of these horribly sinful weapons – weapons so deadly that if used they would kill billions of people, make the earth largely uninhabitable, and would cause the living to envy the dead.
If ever the trite expression “no-brainer” was truly applicable, it is in the urgent and immediate need for global citizens to demand that their leaders urgently begin with all due haste, tireless efforts to totally eliminate all nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.
The possession of nuclear weapons, the ongoing modernization of them, the aiming of them at adversaries, and the outright threatening to use them, is absolutely insane! And deeply immoral!
In his 2019 address given at Japan’s Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, Pope Francis said, “One of the deepest longings of the human heart is for security, peace and stability. The possession of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction is not the answer to this desire; indeed, they seem always to thwart it.”
And with prophetic warning Pope Francis declared: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral, as I already said two years ago. We will be judged on this.”
So, how can it be that Pope Francis’ serious magisterial teaching that even “possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral,” continues to be largely ignored by countless Catholics – even including most Catholic bishops of the nuclear nations?
In the U.S. the almost obligatory statements from U.S. bishops around the anniversary of the August 6 and August 9 atomic bombings, is in and of itself, of little help in ridding the world of these weapons inspired from hell. Our bishops need to show ongoing prophetic leadership here, in order to inspire ongoing prophetic prayer and action among Catholics in the pews for nuclear disarmament.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ famous Doomsday Clock – which is designed to warn the world of how close we are to nuclear and environmental holocaust – is now set at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to symbolic catastrophe.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists firmly stated one year ago that “The world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic.”
Let us seriously heed the words of Pope Leo, “Above all in this atomic era, the affirmation of the truth must push through: It is not atomic weapons that generate peace, but disarmament.”
About the Author
Tony Magliano is not a member of the AUSCP. He is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.