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Archbishop Wester Calls For Nuclear Disarmament

Kevin Meerschaert
/
KSFR-FM

Archdiocese of Santa Fe Archbishop Most Reverend John Wester has released a pastoral letter urging nations to disarm their nuclear weapons.

 

 

Wester says there needs to be a serious conversation regarding universal, verifiable disarmament. He says we can no longer deny or ignore the dangerous predicament we have created for ourselves with a new nuclear arms race, which Wester says is arguably more dangerous than the past Cold War.  

Pope Francis has made statements in the past about what he sees as the immorality of possessing nuclear weapons, and moving the Church from its past conditional acceptance of deterrence to abolition.

Wester says mankind has a duty to protect the Earth from its own destruction.        

“I think we have to have a certain humility as human beings. God has given us such beautiful creation and such wonderful brains and ability to do so much," he said. "But we are not God, and sadly we have created a situation where we could destroy God’s creation and that’s, in my mind, blasphemous.”  

Wester says the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has a special role to play in advocating for nuclear disarmament,  given the presence of the Los Alamos and Sandia nuclear weapons laboratories and the nation’s largest repository of nuclear weapons at the Kirtland Air Force Base.

He says he understands any pushback he may receive given the economic interests connected to the nuclear arms industry in New Mexico, but he says that technology can be adapted for peaceful means.

    

 

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