Scottish bishop urges Catholics to oppose nuclear arsenal renewal

Published: 2007-01-09

LONDON (CNS) -- A Scottish bishop has urged Catholics to oppose plans to renew Great Britain's nuclear arsenal. Bishop Peter Moran of Aberdeen, Scotland, called on Catholics to tell legislators about the Catholic Church's opposition to the proposals before the British Parliament's debate on plans to upgrade the submarine-based Trident nuclear weapons system. Legislators were to debate the issue and vote on it in March. In a pastoral letter read at Masses in Scotland Jan. 6-7, the bishop said that, like King Herod plotting to kill Jesus, many people were still "plotting death for the innocent." "The world's most powerful governments, including our own, seem determined to base our security on having nuclear weapons available," said Bishop Moran, president of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland. He thanked Catholics who already had signed a petition opposing the British government's proposals to redevelop the Trident system.

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