One day after the United States withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Russia followed suit. Pax Christi USA believes neither the United States nor Russia should withdraw from any treaties which limit the number of nuclear weapons possessed by any nations. In particular, we note that since 1987 the INF Treaty kept both the United States and the then USSR, now Russia, from developing and deploying certain intermediate range nuclear weapons.
Substantive progress on nuclear disarmament concerns all countries. Accordingly, in 2017, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and that same year, Pope Francis unequivocally condemned possession of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are immoral, and any government which moves to develop a nuclear arsenal or add to its existing nuclear arsenal should be condemned.
A global majority of states are providing leadership for the elimination of nuclear weapons, yet the U.S. and other powers are modernizing their nuclear arsenals instead. Abandoning the INF will intensify this already alarming trend.
Therefore, Pax Christi USA urges the U.S. and Russia to return to the treaty and to begin new arms reduction negotiations as soon as possible.
Please reconsider the decision to withdraw from this agreement. Nuclear devastation is one of the greatest risks to our planet and civilization as we know it. I implore you to find a way to reduce all nuclear weapons.
Thank you.
In a world in conflict, we need leaders who will work for peace through negotiation not through weaponry. It is time to come once again to the table with the goal of eliminating not enhancing nuclear weapons. The U.S. needs to be present as one who believes peace can happen through mutual respect and conversation at the table.
In a world hungering for peace I beg you to do the right thing, consider the safety of our one precious planet and sit down again to the negotiating table to re establish the Nuclear Weapons Treaty.
Recognizing the Christ within world leaders, perhaps unaware if their divinity, we in Pax Christi must continue to inform ourselves, work, pray, hope and keep the faith that peace is possible.
A treaty doesn’t eliminate nuclear weapons, but it is a good start towards not using them.
Ralph and Margaret DeRango
As Shakespeare said “fear doth make cowards of us all”. In a peaceful world no weapons are necessary.
The decision by the United States and Russia to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Weapons Treaty is pure insanity as it plays with the future survival of our precious planet and all of its inhabitants. This is the time for all Christians and people of moral conscience to mobilize for persistent protest.
The latest move by my country to withdraw from the treaty is yet another sign of the nuclear madness which threatens our lives and our planet. In the wake of this news, we have our eyes on the fate of Kings
bay Plowshares folks whose trial is set for the next few days. Martha Hennessey, the grand daughter of Dorothy Day is one the three who courageously did the Plowshares action at the Trident Submarine base in Georgia. We support this kind of prophetic action to wake us up to the gravity of the nuclear threat.
I live in Japan that has suffered from 2 Atom bombs and a devastating nuclear reactor meltdown. We are insane to make let alone use nuclear weapons. We are not safer- we all lose by making them and creating the material to make them in nuclear reactors- and the greatest losers are our children and the earth itself.
Amen.
America needs to stand for disarmament as a Christian country.