US Archbishop Warns of New Nuclear Arms Race

WASHINGTON, 01/13/2022 (KAP) The Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, John Wester, has issued a strong warning of a new nuclear arms race. “We need nuclear arms control, not an escalating nuclear arms race,” he says in a recent pastoral letter, according to the Catholic News Agency (KNA). Nuclear armament is a “diabolical spiral” that endangers everyone.

Wester’s diocese of New Mexico is particularly hard hit by nuclear armaments. Nuclear weapons are manufactured at Los Alamos and at Sandia National Laboratories. The US government stores nuclear weapons at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

Wester’s letter comes nearly two weeks after a joint statement by the five nuclear powers that are permanent members of the UN Security Council. At the beginning of January, the USA, Great Britain, France, China and Russia reaffirmed the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and the avoidance of nuclear war.

The tenth conference to review the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which has been overdue since 2020, is currently scheduled to meet in New York. However, it was postponed again at the turn of the year due to Corona and is now scheduled to take place in August.

In his pastoral letter, US Bishop Wester criticizes that none of the signatory states to the treaty have complied with their obligation to end nuclear armament. Instead, they have “modernized” the nuclear arsenal.

The 52-page pastoral letter also quotes Pope Francis, who has repeatedly called for the global nuclear arsenal to be abolished because of the threat they pose. Just a few days ago, Pope Francis said in a programmatic speech to diplomats in the Vatican that nuclear weapons are an unsuitable means of responding to security threats in the 21st century. Even their possession is “highly immoral,” emphasized the Catholic Church leader.