Urgently calling for a renewed commitment to dialogue, disarmament treaties, and care for communities still suffering the consequences of nuclear testing, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia raised the alarm over a resurgence of “aggressive nuclear rhetoric”.

Speaking on Thursday, September 4,  at a High-Level Plenary Meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York, recalled that eighty years have passed since the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. An event, he said, that “introduced the world to an unprecedented destructive force” and cast “a long shadow over humanity.”

Continuing nuclear tests

The Archbishop lamented the continuing impact of more than two thousand nuclear tests conducted since 1945, stressing that they have disproportionately harmed indigenous peoples, women, children, and the unborn.

“The health and dignity of many continue to be affected in silence, and all too often without redress,” he said.

Marking the annual UN Day of Remembrance, Archbishop Caccia underscored that it must also serve as a moment of renewed responsibility.

“It is particularly concerning that, in the face of this important and shared responsibility, the global response appears to be moving in the opposite direction,” he observed, pointing to rising military expenditures and the development of ever more destructive weapons “at the expense of investment in integral human development and the promotion of the common good.”

Never place trust in armaments

Quoting Pope Francis, Archbishop Caccia urged the international community to resist the temptation of placing trust in armaments: “We must never become accustomed to war. Indeed, the temptation to place our trust in powerful and sophisticated weapons must be firmly rejected.”

He described the pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons as not only “a strategic and vital necessity, but also a profound moral responsibility,” and reiterated the Holy See’s support for key multilateral frameworks, including the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Appeal to strengthen global norm against nuclear testing

Concluding his address, Archbishop Caccia called for concrete support for those communities still affected by the long-term consequences of nuclear testing and reiterated the Holy See’s conviction that strengthening the global norm against nuclear explosive testing is “an essential step toward genuine and lasting peace.”