‘Clearly the nuclear threats are escalating,’ the bishops said, ‘and we are sliding backwards with massive modernization programs to keep nuclear weapons forever.’
Catholic bishops from the United States and Japan cautioned that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is at risk of collapse and urged world leaders to renew commitments to disarmament.
“May you all help lead this suffering world to the promised land of a world free of nuclear weapons,” wrote five bishops whose dioceses were shaped by nuclear weapons, either as the birthplace of the bomb, a deployment hub, or the site of atomic devastation. The bishops issued the statement April 27 on the convening of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty’s 11th review conference.
“For 56 years the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) has acted as the cornerstone of nuclear weapons nonproliferation,” said Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle; Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki, Japan; Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, Japan; Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama of Hiroshima, Japan.
The bishops represent the Partnership for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, an international Catholic coalition formed in 2023 by the bishops of Seattle, Santa Fe, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki to
