He told the UN committee on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons that the threat is especially dangerous today.

He highlighted the global increase in rhetoric and threats about nuclear weapons' use, the "tense strategic environment" many countries are facing and the "ongoing modernisation and expansion of nuclear arsenals".

He noted Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned nuclear weapons could be used if Russia faces a serious enough threat from Ukraine.

He said that in the Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas, the possibility of nuclear weapons being deployed is a real concern.

He also noted that no-one knows if Israel has a nuclear arsenal - if so, some experts say it's likely to be small. Israel maintains a policy of strategic ambiguity on the matter.

While Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, it is reportedly trying to develop them in nuclear facilities Balestrero added.

His views are backed by calculations from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican).

It is quoted as saying global spending on nuclear weapons hit a world record last year.

Ican reported that estimated nuclear weapons spending went up about 13 per cent to a record $91.4 billion during 2023. It attributed the increase in part to a sharp increase in US defence budgets - although all nine of the world's nuclear-armed nations are spending more.

Technologies to deploy the weapons are also advancing.

Madly costly affront to humanity

Balestrero noted the Vatican believes possessing nuclear weapons even for deterrence is morally wrong. So is manufacturing them.

He told the UN that such actions are "an affront to humanity as a whole".

This view is the opposite of the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine, he noted. In that doctrine the opponents have nuclear weapons they can never use as each would wipe the other out.

Balestrero told the UN a nuclear weapons-free world is "both possible and necessary".

He suggested there are three ways to address the increase in rhetoric and spending around nuclear weapons and their use:

Make it so that non-proliferation and disarmament are seen as more than just legal obligations. Show them as "ethical responsibilities towards all members of the human family".

Develop "sincere dialogue" aimed at reducing nuclear weapons stockpiles worldwide.

Spend the money currently invested in nuclear weapons on humanitarian projects.

Source

• Catholic Herald

"North Korean authorities are wasting scarce financial resources on the development of nuclear and missile capabilities," Yoon said in a written interview with the Associated Press. "Consequently, the hardships faced by North Koreans in their everyday lives are worsening, and its economy continues to register negative growth.

"Amid such circumstances, unless North Korea stops its nuclear development, the regime's instability will continue to increase."

The South Korean leader on Monday also pressed China to take "constructive efforts to denuclearise North Korea." He added that Beijing must realise Pyongyang's nuclear provocations pose "a negative effect on China's national interests by further disrupting regional order, among other things."

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They described this as "a retrograde step that will not make any of us safer" adding: "It is immoral that the UK government is committing resources, which could be spent on the common good of our society, to stockpiling even more weapons."

The international affairs department of the Catholic Bishops' Conference lent support, namely the chairman, Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton and Bishop William Kenney, auxiliary in Birmingham and the lead bishop on peace and disarmament issues.

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Famous for their symbolic Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin's highly respected scientists and 15 Nobel Laureate consultants recently moved the clock to two minutes before midnight - warning that a nuclear war catastrophe is very possible!

The only other time in its seven decade history the minute hand has been set this close to midnight - that is, the devastation of the planet, and virtually everything and everyone on it - was in 1953 after the U.S. and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear weapons for the first time.

And in less than three weeks after the Doomsday Clock was moved so perilously close to nuclear midnight, the Pentagon on Feb. 2 released its 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), providing the world with even more reasons to be alarmed.

Adding to the insane fact that both the United States and the Russian Federation each have hundreds of nuclear weapons aimed at each other programmed with a "launch-on-warning" - hair-trigger-alert - status, the NPR states that the U.S. will continue its policy to be the first to initiate a nuclear attack if it decides that its "vital interests" and those of its "allies and partners" are at risk.

I interviewed Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which as an organization won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its leading work to achieve a nuclear-free world through the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

She said the Pentagon's NPR furthers President Trump's $1 trillion-plus plan to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and produce new so-called "low-yield" nuclear weapons - similar in destructive power to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - making them more "usable."

Fihn said, "There are no ‘good nukes' and this policy makes nuclear war more likely."

Fihn has deep admiration for Pope Francis saying, "The Holy Father made it clear last year that the only morally acceptable nuclear strategy is one that seeks security through the total elimination of nuclear weapons".

It is of special note that the Holy See was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. But most unfortunately, the U.S. and the other eight nuclear powers have rejected it.

While writing this column, I paused to watch the 1983 movie "The Day After" which realistically portrays how an escalating set of events could quickly lead to a catastrophic nuclear conflict, and the horrific aftermath of a nuclear war.

I strongly urge all adults and teenagers to watch this unfortunately still very timely film. And it would be very fruitful if church groups would view it together, followed by prayer, discussion and a commitment to action.

God the Creator is calling each of us - clergy and laity - to persistently raise our voices on behalf of humanity and the earth upon which we live - before it's too late!

The day before Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, he prophetically warned us in his compelling "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech: "It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. That is where we are today."

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag@zoominternet.net.

Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, the Vatican's Secretary for Relations with States, told the conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency that the Vatican "shares the thoughts and sentiments of most men and women of good will who aspire to a total elimination of nuclear weapons."

Speaking in Vienna to 159 delegates to the IAEA from nations around the world, Mamberti also exhorted nations to look skeptically at the use of any sort of military force, not just nuclear weapons.

"At the difficult crossroads at which humanity finds itself — a crossroads characterized by an increasingly strict interdependence on the economic, political, social and environmental level — one should ask: does the use of force represent a sustainable solution in time?" Mamberti asked.

"It seems, in fact, only to increase mutual distrust and to refer to a distorted sense of priorities that commits significant resources in a short-sighted way," he continued. "The temptation to face new situations with old systems must be rejected.

"We must redefine the priorities and hierarchies of values by which to mobilize resources towards objectives of moral, cultural and economic development, since development, solidarity and justice are nothing other than the real name for peace, for a lasting peace in time and space."

The IAEA, which reports to the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council, is an independent agency established in the 1950s to promote so-called peaceful uses of nuclear power.

Quoting from both the current pope, Francis, and Pope John XXIII, Mamberti said frankly that "global security must not rely on nuclear weapons." Citing at length from John XXIII's 1963 encyclical letter Pacem in Terris, he said "nuclear weapons must be banned."

"Even though written 50 years ago, these words seem to reflect the beginning of the 21st century," Mamberti said. "We should ask ourselves whether we really live in a more secure and safer world today compared with that of a few decades ago."

Sources

National Catholic Reporter

Prensa Latina

Image: UN Photo

Blessed are the Peacemakers
Violence is something we live with on a daily basis. It can be felt as an unkind word, experienced as a physical injury or extreme hunger, or seen in spectacular actions of armed killers on the television screen. The threat of unexpected violence can mean we live in fear and insecurity, or the shock of violence in far flung places can stop us from understanding what life is like for people living in other places. Fear creates a barrier between peoples and can fuel further violence, prejudice and injustice.

For Christians, called to be peacemakers, violence creates an opportunity and a challenge. The opportunity is to express our faith through actions to end such violence. The challenge is to overcome the fear and discern the best action to take. Jesus talked often of peace. He affirmed the importance of peacemaking in the Beatitudes (Matt 5:9). Biblical shalom is peace with justice. Jesus, named the Prince of Peace, is concerned with the full spectrum of peace from the inner self to justice for the planet.

Promoting just peace in an age where there is increased competition over shrinking resources and a greater than ever capacity for violence requires renewed global action. In the Pacific peace remains a priority issue, especially for those countries seeking self-determination and dealing with the continuing damage from nuclear testing. Churches were very much part of the action that led to the nuclear free legislation being passed into New Zealand law twenty-five years ago this year. There is more to be done.

Peace Sunday
This year Peace Sunday falls on August 5. We remember the terrible damage unleashed by the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by a US B-29 bomber on August 6, 1945. Three days later another followed hitting Nagasaki on August 9. Images and tesimony of those who witnessed and survived remind us of the magnitude of the human potenial for destrucion present in such technology. The testing of nuclear weapons has also created long term damage. Decades after the first nuclear test on Moruroa Atoll on 2 July, 1966, the workers are sill seeking some compensaion for the many cancers and health problems caused by the 193 tests on Maohi land. Moruroa E Tatou coninues to campaign for fair compensation for the workers and their families through the courts. Cracks in the atoll pose continuing ecological hazards. Read more

Sources

• Christian World Service
• Image: Peace on Earth