Nuclear Disarmament

In 2005, sixty years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we Clinton Franciscans voted to take a corporate public position opposing continued maintenance, development, and threatened use of the United States arsenal of nuclear weapons and research into and testing of new nuclear weaponry.

We call on our government to fulfill our commitments to nuclear disarmament as agreed to in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970 and to abide by the provisions of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty of 1996.

According to a poll conducted by ABC and The Washington Post in March 2005, over two-thirds of those polled said that no nation, including the United States, should have nuclear weapons. We must press our government to respond to the will of the people.

We believe in the sanctity of every human life and of all creation. Nuclear weapons are a grave danger to all forms of life.

The Catholic Church's teaching requires that any use of force be proportionate and discriminate; it must not produce more harm than good, and must respect noncombatant immunity and protect civilians. The Church has long opposed the use of nuclear weapons, especially against non-nuclear threats, as well as the development of new nuclear weapons. While possession of a minimal nuclear capability may deter the use of nuclear weapons by others, the Church urges that nuclear deterrence be replaced with concrete measures of disarmament based on dialogue and multilateral negotiations.

We Clinton Franciscans have committed ourselves to active nonviolence as a way of life and to the promotion of nonviolence in society. Continuing the nuclear arms race makes us as Americans a party to intolerable violence. Faced with this reality, we have no choice but to pursue the objective of a nuclear weapons-free world and to invite everyone to join in this pursuit.

Click here for a glossary of nuclear disarmament terms.

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INTERNET RESOURCES ON NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

Mayors for Peace

Consortium of nearly 4,000 cities in 143 countries in support of nuclear weapons abolition. Clinton Mayor Rodger Holm is a member.
http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html

Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Committed to a world free of nuclear weapons.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Publishers of "Zero is the Only Option" -- a major new briefing paper on the global climate and health effects of nuclear war.
http://www.psr.org/nuclear-weapons/

Reaching Critical Will

Reaching for a critical mass of political will for nuclear disarmament. A project of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/

Women's Action for New Directions (WAND)

WAND empowers women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism and to redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.
http://www.wand.org

"Justice, right reason, and the recognition of man's dignity cry out insistently for a cessation to the arms race. The stockpiles of armaments which have been built up in various countries must be reduced all round and simultaneously by the parties concerned. Nuclear weapons must be banned. ...Everyone must sincerely co-operate... But this requires that the fundamental principles upon which peace is based in today's world be replaced by an altogether different one, namely, the realization that true and lasting peace among nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supply of armaments but only in mutual trust."

- Pope John XXIII, Peace on Earth, nos. 112, 113

"1945-1998" by Isao Hashimoto
A 15-minute video which demonstrates the history of nuclear weapons testing.
Click HERE to view the clip.