Pope Francis criticized the demise of arms control treaties while visiting Nagasaki, the site of the second of the two U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in 1945.
Pope Francis demanded world leaders renounce atomic weapons and the Cold War-era doctrine of deterrence, saying Sunday the stockpiling of nuclear arms decreases security, wastes money and threatens humanity.
“Convinced as I am that a world without nuclear weapons is possible and necessary, I ask political leaders not to forget that these weapons cannot protect us from current threats to national and international security,” he said.The mood was somber and silent, darkened by the downpour that drenched the terraced fields and rice paddies of Nagasaki and the thousands of Japanese who came out in plastic raincoats to witness the second pope to pay his respects to victims of the bomb.
The first U.S. atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people. The second one was dropped three days later on Nagasaki and killed an additional 74,000 by the end of the same year. Many of the survivors have suffered the lasting effect of radiation exposure and developed various forms of cancer.
He lamented the “climate of distrust” that is eating away at nonproliferation efforts and the arms control framework, a reference to a series of violated treaties and the demise this year of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a landmark Cold War-era arms control agreement. The U.S. formally withdrew from the treaty in August after accusing Russia of developing a missile system prohibited under it.
Starting in 1982, St. John Paul II had held that nuclear deterrence could be morally acceptable in the interim “so long as it is used as a step toward mutual, verifiable nuclear disarmament.” But the Holy See has come to realize in recent years that the policy was becoming a permanent condition and not leading to disarmament. By condemning nuclear deterrence, Francis pleased liberals and agitated conservatives, perhaps informing his more nuanced remarks Sunday.
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