Thinking about the Unthinkable

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Apart from the pope, Catholic leaders don’t often get positive media coverage. They are an easy target. They often say publicly what people don’t want to hear, bucking contemporary views on many topics. I agree with many of the bishops, especially on matters of doctrine. With others, not so much.

I admire Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., who has been publicly advocating for serious conversations about how to achieve nuclear disarmament. When discussing religion, politics or social policy, it’s sort of the elephant in the room.

Who wants to imagine, let alone discuss, the possibility of nuclear war? It’s among those problems we perceive as unsolvable. In terms of the famous St. Francis prayer, it appears to be among “what we can’t change.”

But is it, really?   

Two National Laboratories

Wester is trying to initiate discussions about it, at least, beginning in his own archdiocese which is home to two national laboratories — Sandia and Los Alamos — where nuclear weapon research and development continues.

He recently released a pastoral letter, entitled, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation toward Nuclear Disarmament.”

“His concern is that after decades in which arms control treaties led to reductions in nuclear armaments,” says a story in the National Catholic Reporter, “a new arms race is already underway as the U.S. and Russia, the world's primary nuclear powers, develop new weapons systems.”

"I think we've been lulled into a false sense of complacency,” Wester said. “I think it's important as the archbishop of Santa Fe that I say something, that the archdiocese has a seat at the table on this discussion, because this is the birthplace of the nuclear bomb."

John Wester
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This topic isn’t new to Wester. In 2017, he visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the two Japanese cities destroyed by the atomic bombs that ended the Second World War. And after his return, he visited a New Mexico museum dedicated to the history of nuclear weapon development. 

His concern is what we know but don’t want to think or talk about: that in any future nuclear exchange, however limited, the earth will likely be destroyed or so damaged that it is unlivable.

Pope Francis and many religious leaders are with Wester on this. The pope has appealed to the world's nine nuclear weapons-possessing nations to dismantle their arsenals for the good of humanity.

But what can be done given the world’s dilemma about nuclear weapons? Treaties depend on trust. Can we trust China, Russia, or North Korea? So, are we left with throwing up our hands in despair?

At least we can talk, the archbishop would answer.

Threats in the World

He stressed that he is not calling for unilateral disarmament by the U.S. He acknowledges there are threats in the world and that all nuclear powers must agree to disarm together. He’s doing his part by building a network among parishes in his archdiocese to discuss alternatives to nuclear warfare.

Wester also recognizes that the nuclear industry is worth billions of dollars annually to the New Mexico economy. He called for a "just transition" of jobs so that people are not forced to give up their livelihoods.

What’s all this have to do with the search for God? It’s that God, the creator, is by definition an opponent of nuclear war, or any war for that matter. And we who search for God must adopt this view.

Some will say that people like Wester are childlike dreamers who believe we can achieve the impossible. I think that puts him in the company of Jesus of Nazareth.