By Msgr. Noel Burtenshaw

The American bishops planned the strategy well. The man who would be “king” was appointed as leader, presenter and spokesman. Together with his committee, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin carefully began the unique project. The bishops would execute the publication of a letter to the Catholics of the United States on the holocaustal and irreversible nature of nuclear fire-power.

The first and second drafts are already in print. Quicksilver discussion is rapidly in progress. More is yet to come. Questions are in the making and are being asked.

Is it ethical to be involved in nuclear armaments? Who can fire first? Is it alright to possess them, to make them, to threaten with them? Can it be morally right to stockpile them? Is anything about this universe-ending weaponry moral?

The bishops have yet to unfold their final deliberations. In May, the task will be complete and the world will know. Since the incineration of Hiroshima the question of morality has been asked. The question today is more urgent.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were minor explosions compared to today’s capability. Twenty years ago the anti-nuclear voice of Bertrand Russell and others asked both East and West to look keenly at the very present possibility of nuclear stockpiles leading this world to the “decision of final holocaust.” Their voices went unheard.

The letter of the American bishops will be published after the celebration of the most sublime feast of Easter. Lent – our time of preparation for that feast – can also be a time for us to consider, question and pray about the bishops’ pastoral leadership in this vital arena of peace.

However, as we consider the awful finality that nuclear destruction can bring, let us not forget that peace on this earth is more than just the absence of war. It is more than armies not on the march, guns not blazing or squadrons not filling the skies. Peace is more than one side declaring victory or the grateful absence of refugees that someone must tend.

When Pope John XXIII wrote his famous encyclical letter “Peace on Earth” he courageously defined what he meant by peace. Very simply this reforming pontiff outlined peace as “social order between people.” It is almost sublimely simple. When there is world-wide, popular social order, then peace on earth becomes a reality.

When there is a just wage, a job for all, respect for initiative, colorblindness, family-centered societies, homes for the homeless, conscious contact with man’s maker, fraternal service, honest sharing across borders – then, says Pope John, and only then, will peace achieve a lasting reign.

During this season of preparation and prayer that we call Lent, we want to consider the full expanse of peace. Our Lenten articles are written and outlined for you as a preface to the pages soon to be published by the bishops. They will ask you to consider global peace, but not necessarily as it affects the foreign reaches of the globe. They will attempt to have you answer how this global peace touches and shapes the life you lead in its present expression and in the influences it will have as it touches others.

Our messages about peace will deal with peacemakers who provide shelter, prayer that brings peace, elusive inner-peace of mind, domestic peace and, finally, the task of our bishops to express peace. Hopefully our series will be Lenten meditations that ultimately question the condition of Christianity in us.

Lent is a renewal time of inner gifts. May the gift of peace no longer sit on pages to be admired. May it be present to our lives and because of our gratitude for that presence, may it expand beyond our vision and conquer unknown enemies so that they and we become firm friends.

Each week during the Lenten celebration we will place our articles in your homes. May they inspire us to be peacemakers of the most memorable kind, possessing it, preferring it and, by the renewal of our lives, giving it away.

(This is the first in a six-part series.)