Sisters urge UK to reverse 'immoral' nuclear expansion plan

Source: Sisters of St Joseph of Peace

The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, an international congregation of Catholic Sisters and Associates in the UK, and the US, have issued a formal statement asking the UK government to reverse its decision to increase the number of its nuclear warheads. This is in continuity with the Congregational Statement on Nuclear Weapons, 2020 issued last summer in advance of the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The full CSJP Leadership Team Statement on the UK Nuclear Arms Expansion follows:

The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace in the UK and the US, committed to active nonviolence and working for total nuclear disarmament, call on Boris Johnson and the UK government to reverse its recent decision to increase its number of nuclear warheads by forty percent. Such an expansion is immoral, illegal, a waste of funds and a threat to what nuclear stability exists.

On January 22 of this year the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force, making it illegal under international law to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.

Rather than increase the threat of conflict, the funding to pay for the increased number of warheads could better be used to support efforts more likely to lead to a healthier and more peaceful world order: by funding the NHS which has risen so heroically in this time of pandemic or restoring the foreign aid that is being cut from the budget.

The decision to increase the number of warheads violates the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) to which the UK is a signatory. This will further destabilize the global nuclear situation making it more difficult for negotiators to renew the NPT during talks at the UN later this year. Furthermore, the increase in the number of warheads by the UK undermines the NPT as a rationale for denying nuclear
capability to Iran.

In November of 2017, Pope Francis declared that possession of nuclear weapons, even for the purpose of deterrence is no longer moral.

Our already fragile planet and its environment is threatened by any use of nuclear weapons, intentional or accidental. We dare not ever use them, or the "security" they provide could create an environmental, and humanitarian disaster of untold proportions.

At Nagasaki, the site of the last use of a nuclear weapon in war, Pope Francis said: "Peace and international stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction, or the threat of total annihilation,"

We urge all people of good will to join us in contacting their MPs early and often in the hope of reversing this misguided, wasteful and dangerous policy.

Let us continue to pray and act for a more peace-filled tomorrow.