Scottish Cardinal launches petition against Trident

Cardinal Keith O'Brien will be the first signatory to a petition urging the UK Government not to commit to a replacement for the Trident Nuclear Weapons System tomorrow in Edinburgh. The Cardinal will sign the petition outside the Scottish parliament's main entrance at 1pm. He will be joined by Morag Mylne Convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council as well as representatives of other churches and MSP's. Cardinal O'Brien said: "I welcome the Prime Minister's recent comment that there should be the 'fullest possible' public debate on the Trident nuclear missile system. The Catholic Church has clear and consistent teaching on nuclear weapons. The use of weapons of mass destruction would be a crime against God and against humanity that must never happen. He added: "The Church teaches that it is immoral to use weapons of mass destruction in an act of war to do so would be to commit a crime against God and man himself that merited unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation. Equally, storing and accumulating such far from eliminating the causes of war, actually risks aggravating them." Morag Mylne commented: "There are certain issues which unite the Churches in Scotland. One of these is our revulsion at the continued presence of weapons of mass destruction in Scotland. For many years now, the General Assembly has spoken out against the Trident weapons system, which is based on the Clyde not far from Scotland's largest city. "Later this month, the General Assembly will be asked to oppose any Move by the United Kingdom Government to replace Trident with a new generation of nuclear weapons, and to affirm our belief that any system of weapons designed to destroy whole cities has to be considered morally repugnant and an evil in the world." The text of the petition follows: "We the undersigned urge the Government of the United Kingdom not to invest in a replacement for the Trident system and to begin now the process of decommissioning these weapons with the intention of diverting the sums spent on nuclear weaponry to programmes of aid and development." Copies of the petition can be downloaded in pdf format from: www.justiceandpeacescotland.org.uk/downloads/tridentpetition.pdf