IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
ABOARD
THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM BANGLADESH (CNS) — The Cold War policy of nuclear
deterrence appears morally unacceptable today, Pope Francis said.
St.
John Paul II, in a 1982 message to the U.N. General Assembly, said deterrence “may
still be judged morally acceptable” as a stage in the process of ridding
the world of nuclear weapons.
But
Pope Francis, in a message in early November to a Vatican conference, said “the
very possession” of nuclear weapons “is to be firmly condemned.”
During
a news conference Dec. 2 on his flight back to Rome from Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Pope Francis was asked what had changed since St. John Paul wrote to the United
Nations and whether the war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un influenced his position.
“What
has changed?” the pope responded. “The irrationality has changed.”
Pope
Francis said his position is open to debate, but “I’m convinced that we
are at the limit of licitly having and using nuclear weapons.”
The
world’s nuclear arsenals, he said, “are so sophisticated that you risk the
destruction of humanity or a great part of humanity.”
Even
nuclear power plants raise questions, the pope said, because it seems that
preventing accidents and cleaning up after them is almost impossible.
Pope
Francis said he was not dictating “papal magisterium,” or formal
church teaching, but was raising a question that a pope should raise: “Today
is it licit to maintain the nuclear arsenals as they are or, to save creation
and to save humanity, isn’t it necessary to turn back?”
The
weapons are designed to bring one side victory by destroying the other, he
said, “and we are at the limit of what is licit.”
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