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Peace campaigners welcome CoE Bishops letter on UN Nuclear Weapons Treaty


Bruce Kent (centre) and Theresa Alessandro (right) joined a group taking a petition to No10 in Sept 2019 calling UK government to sign the treaty

Bruce Kent (centre) and Theresa Alessandro (right) joined a group taking a petition to No10 in Sept 2019 calling UK government to sign the treaty

Catholic peace campaigners praise Anglican bishops who have written a public letter urging the UK government to sign the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons which was ratified recently and comes into force in January 2021.

Theresa Alessandro, director of Pax Christi England and Wales said: "We are encouraged by the moral leadership of a large number of Church of England bishops who have called on our government to sign the UN Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty.

"Pax Christi's National President Archbishop Malcolm McMahon made a similar statement last year saying: "Here is an opportunity for the leaders of nuclear weapons-possessing countries such as the United Kingdom to demonstrate creative, moral courage. We call on our government to sign the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and be part of a future built on just international relationships and the common good of all humanity."

Nuclear weapons will be prohibited under international law from 22nd January 2021. Pope Francis has said that, "even their very possession is to be condemned." We would like to hear the Catholic bishops of England & Wales speak up on this issue. We can rid the world of nuclear weapons. Let's do it.

Bruce Kent, vice president of Pax Christi, CND and the Movement for the Abolition of War said: "The letter in this week's Observer, from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and some 30 Anglican Bishops, calling on the British Government to sign the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be warmly welcomed by very many people of all religions and none.

This Treaty, which has now been ratified, will come into force on 22nd January 2020. It will make the possession, deployment, testing, and transportation of nuclear weapons illegal in large areas of the globe.

I hope that a similar call to our Government will also come, as soon as possible, from our own Bishops of England and Wales.

Pope Francis, in calling the possession, let alone the use, of such weapons immoral, has led the way.

The £205 billion, now being spent here on yet another generation of such mass murder and suicidal weapons, would be much better spent at this time of crisis on our National Health Service and other socially useful needs.

Passionist priest Fr Martin Newell told ICN: "It is good to see when human laws coincide with God's law. Catholic teaching states that possession as well as use of nuclear weapons is a crime against the highest law, God's law. When the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into forces in January, possession as well as use of nuclear weapons will also be illegal in the one third of all countries in the world who have signed up to it so far. The UK is on the way to being a pariah nation. I'm praying Catholics at all levels in the Church will increasingly do all we can to make sure the UK acts to live by God's law in the same way: stop Trident replacement and get rid of these evil weapons. The poor and the planet can be the beneficiaries."

LINKS

Pax Christi hands anti-nuclear petition in to Downing Street - www.indcatholicnews.com/news/37976

Anglican bishops sign historic letter on UN Nuclear Weapons Treaty - www.indcatholicnews.com/news/40901

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