Bishop Gregory calls for recommitment to disarm, war as last resort

Published: 2004-08-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- As terrorist threats persist and intensify, the Catholic Church must reassert a commitment to nuclear disarmament and to using war as a last resort, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., said commitment should "have content beyond slogans," and he called on Catholic policy-makers and public leaders to "make the work of peace a fundamental imperative of their individual vocations." The bishop made his remarks in a statement released Aug. 6, the anniversary of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Nagasaki, Japan, was bombed three days after Hiroshima. The bombings killed or wounded more than 230,000 people. "At a time when much of the world is gripped by fear of terrorism and a few voices hint that the time may again come when the United States should call upon its nuclear arsenal to make quick work of frightening threats, it is fitting to reassert our commitment to disarmament and the conduct of limited war only as a last resort," he said. Bishop Gregory said the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were "permanent reminders of the grave consequences of total war and symbols of our continuing struggle to balance determined action for justice with a profound responsibility to live Christ's peace." "Even now, when Cold War politics is for so many a distant and fading memory and nuclear war only the vaguest threat, the permanent graves of Hiroshima and Nagasaki compel us to declare once again our rejection of total war and our commitment to the advance of Christ's peace in the furthest reaches of the globe," he said. The bishop called on Catholics to commit themselves to the defense of human rights and the rejection of injustice and oppression.

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