Westminster: Pax Christi at launch of Rethink Trident project
Members of Pax Christi, CND, War on Want, Quaker Peace & Social Witness, CAAT and the National Justice and Peace network, took part today (Wednesday) in the House of Commons launch of Rethink Trident. The project brings together the Churches, Trades Unions and peace organisations with a common purpose: to call for the cancellation of Trident.
Kate Hudson of CND said that the aim of the project is to broaden and deepen civil society initiatives on Trident and to ensure that this issue is firmly on the agenda in campainging for the 2015 General Election. She pointed out that public attitudes consistently show opposition to Trident.
From War on Want, John Hilary spoke of the insanity of the arms race and global military spending which stands at $1.7 trillion. Within this, Trident is one of the most crazy projects that no-one seems to want. Anne Feltham from CAAT suggested that it would be helpful if we linked the Trident debate to other work work being undertaken on the Strategic Defence Review. None of the so-called ‘threats’ outlined nthere can be addressed by Trident or other weapons systems.
Pat Gaffney from Pax Christi spoke of the need for Church groups to create support tools and resources to help people engage with this project within their individual churches. Pax Christi have, for example, produced a leaflet on The Catholic Church and Nuclear Weapons , setting out current church teaching on the morality and legality of nuclear weapons.
See: http://paxchristi.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2Catholic-Church_Nuclear-Weapons2014.pdf
Pax Christi was one of the initiating organisations of Rethink Trident. Six Catholic Bishops have endorsed the Rethink Trident statement. Sign up to the project here: http://act.rethinktrident.org.uk/petition/1