New York City, N.Y., Oct 19, 2016 / 05:02 am
The apostolic nuncio to the United Nations again stressed the need for nuclear weapons disarmament on Monday, with the worldwide adherence to the non-proliferation treaty a step to this goal.
"Nuclear arms offer a false sense of security and the uneasy peace promised by nuclear deterrence is a tragic illusion." Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio heading the Holy See's permanent observer mission to the United Nations, said Oct. 17.
"Nuclear weapons cannot create a stable and secure world. Peace and international stability cannot be established on mutually assured destruction or on the threat of total annihilation. Lasting peace cannot be guaranteed by the maintenance of a balance of terror," he added.
Instead, peace must be based on justice, socio-economic development, freedom, human rights, and building trust between peoples, the archbishop told a session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.