World religions urged to show stronger support on nuclear disarmament

Published: 2005-05-31

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Douglas Roche, a Canadian adviser to the Vatican on disarmament and security issues, said during a panel discussion May 27 that the religions of the world "need to speak up much more strongly" about nuclear disarmament. Calling nuclear weaponry "the paramount moral issue of our time," he said that "nuclear weapons and human security cannot coexist." Roche said, however, that the world's religions alone cannot exert sufficient influence to move the nuclear powers to disarm and would have to work in alliance with other concerned members of society. Contemporary society is largely secular, and even a "sustained high-level joint religious call" would not be sufficient to make it respond, he said. But he said the religious community could find ways of aligning itself with the "secular humanistic culture" to speak about "values that are human -- for people of faith and people of no faith."

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