Vatican official confirms Church desire to abolish nuclear weapons
September 17, 2013
Global security must not rely on nuclear weapons,” the Vatican’s top foreign-policy official told an international gathering on September 16.
Speaking in Vienna at the 57th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Secretary for Relations with States, commended the Agency’s work to “promote and strengthen a global nuclear-safety culture.” He praised efforts to harness the peaceful potential of atomic energy.
Regarding nuclear weapons, however, the archbishop quoted the words of Blessed John XXIII, from his encyclical Pacem in Terris, saying that “justice, right reason, and the recognition of man’s dignity cry out insistently for a cessation to the arms race.” Still quoting John XXIII, he said simply: “Nuclear weapons must be banned.”
Archbishop Mamberti said that the Holy See is particularly concerned about the volatile situation in the Middle East, and “restates its strong support for the efforts to establish a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.”
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