Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, delivered a lecture on November 13 in Florence on “The Nuclear Menace: New Scenarios of Risk and the Commitment of Christians.”
“The idea of building peace on the threat of total destruction or on the illusion that stability can derive from a mutual possibility of annihilation” is “morally indefensible and strategically unsustainable,” said Archbishop Gallagher.
“A balance based on terror and mutual demonstrations of force,” he said, “can in no way guarantee authentic peace; on the contrary, it contributes to increasing the risk and destructive scope of a potential conflict.”
The prelate also warned of “an accelerated arms race accompanied by renewed, sometimes frenetic, efforts to expand existing arsenals and their destructive capabilities.”