Going Non-Nuclear

Nuclear disarmament is a moral imperative that requires bold action from the world’s military powers, a U.S. cardinal and a former secretary of defense said at a forum on Oct. 25 sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Cardinal Roger Mahony, retired archbishop of Los Angeles, and William Perry, who served as defense secretary under President Bill Clinton and helped build the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the cold war, said that even though eliminating nuclear weapons around the world will be a tough challenge, this does not mean world leaders should not try. “The church...finds the nuclear status quo morally unacceptable,” Cardinal Mahony said, pointing to the need to begin moving toward a mutual, verifiable, global ban on such weapons. The church rejects “the view that nuclear deterrence is the only option in the long term,” he said. “Rather, the church insists that nuclear disarmament, not nuclear deterrence, is a long-term basis for security.”