Nagasaki National Peace Memorial - Photo: bigstock.com
The Missionary Society of St. Columban reaffirms the commitment we made at the height of the Cold War when we declared at our 1982 General Assembly: “Our understanding of Christian Discipleship leads us to condemn in strongest terms defence policies that every day make life more insecure. The most blatant of these are present policies of nuclear armament which threaten all life. These policies are themselves a form of killing since they consume resources desperately needed to meet basic human needs.”
As Columbans, we express our deep desire and hope for healing and reconciliation among and within nations, and we urge political and civic leaders of every nation to call for abolishing nuclear weapons, their production, possession, testing and use; and promote nonviolence as the most effective means to global security and peace.
Please read below Statement from Anne Walker, National Executive Director of Catholic Religious Australia:
On this coming Friday, 22 January 2021, history will be made when the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force.
The Treaty has been in development since 2017, when 122 out of 124 States voted in favour of a legally binding treaty to ban nuclear weapons at a UN Conference held in New York.
Concerned by the lack of progress towards nuclear disarmament around the globe, the waste of economic and human resources that go into development and maintenance, and the devastating impact the deployment of nuclear weapons can and have had on human lives and the natural world, the Treaty lists numerous prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities, with the aim of working towards their total elimination.
Prohibitions include development, testing, production, possession, deployment (or threatening to deploy) of nuclear weapons. States also must not give assistance to other states engaged in any of these activities.
On his historic visit to the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, Nagasaki, Japan, in November 2019, Pope Francis said:
“The Catholic Church is irrevocably committed to promoting peace between peoples and nations. This is a duty to which the Church feels bound before God and every man and woman in our world. We must never grow weary of working to support the principal international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.”
The Pope’s full address can be read here.
The full Treaty can be read here (Note that the English version of the Treaty starts on page 17 of the PDF).
To date, Australia has not ratified the Treaty. CRA partner, ICAN (The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), explains that: “While our government will argue that it is not impacted by the treaty, its very existence has already laid bare our complicity with the nuclear weapons problem. And that is powerful.”
ICAN, a coalition of non-governmental organisations in more than one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the Treaty, urge Australians to get involved with both online and in-person activities around the country on Friday 22nd January to urge the Australian government to sign the Treaty.
Activities are taking place around the world. Activities hosted by ICAN on the day can be found here, listed by state and territory: https://icanw.org.au/celebrating-eif/.
You can also find further information on why nuclear weapons is a humanitarian problem, why Australia should join the Treaty and what the Treaty includes in the ‘Learn’ section on ICAN Australia’s website here.
Let us hope that the Australian Government ratifies the Treaty – thank you to all those taking action.
Source: Anne Walker <nationalexec@catholicreligious.org.au>
Related links
- Read Columban Message on 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- Read Columban Society Leaders Message for on the 75th anniversary of the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - August 3, 2020
