Nuclear Disarmament Urged by Catholic Archbishop in New Mexico, Birthplace of Nuclear Weapons

As the Biden administration reviews U.S. nuclear weapons policy, over 60 advocacy groups, including Veterans for Peace and CodePink, recently issued a joint statement calling for the elimination of hundreds of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. “The notion is if you get rid of those ICBMs, you reduce the risk of accidental nuclear war, and it’s the first step towards more rational nuclear policy,” says William Hartung, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Democracy Now! speaks with Father John Dear, longtime peace activist and Catholic priest who led a campaign for 15 years in New Mexico calling for the disarmament of the national laboratories at Los Alamos. Dear was an adviser to Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, on his new pastoral letter titled “Toward Nuclear Disarmament” that calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons arsenals around the globe. The letter is part of a sea change in the Catholic Church under Pope Francis, which condemns “the mere possession of these weapons” as “totally immoral,” says Dear.

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