CNA Staff, Jan 23, 2024 / 11:17 am
An international group of bishops is calling for “universal, verifiable nuclear disarmament” on the third anniversary of a key global nuclear disarmament treaty.
The prelates of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Seattle as well as those of the Japanese Archdiocese of Nagasaki and the Diocese of Hiroshima issued the letter on Monday on the third anniversary of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons going into effect.
That treaty, adopted by the United Nations (U.N.) in 2017 and entered into force in January 2021, includes “a comprehensive set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapon activities,” including directives “not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use, or threaten to use nuclear weapons.”
Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester, Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne, Nagasaki Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura, Hiroshima Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama, and Nagasaki Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mitsuaki Takami noted that the treaty “has been signed by 93 countries and ratified by 70,” although “no nuclear weapons powers or their allies” have signed onto it.