Nuclear arms: Their immorality hits close to home

In November, Pope Francis called for the global abolition of nuclear weapons while paying homage to the victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Nagasaki was a city destroyed by atomic weapons with plutonium produced in Washington’s Catholic Diocese.

The Holy Father declared: “With deep conviction I wish once more to declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home.”

Washington state has the largest collection of deployed nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor on Hood Canal, not far from Tacoma. This makes our state a primary target in the event of a nuclear exchange.

As people of faith, we call on religious leaders, especially the Seattle Archbishop, to heed the words of Pope Francis: to join other faith-based members of the Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition and actively preach that the possession and so-called modernization of nuclear weapons is immoral.

This story was originally published December 21, 2019 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Nuclear arms: Their immorality hits close to home."