This is a copy of my June article for the WNY Catholic newspaper on "Peace on Earth" - Pope John XXIII's encyclical from 50 years ago this past spring. Comments are, as always, welcome!

The Arms Race and Peace on Earth

Justice Perspective

Deacon Don Weigel

            I remember being really scared as a young boy by the possibility that our country would be entering into nuclear war. It was October of 1962, and the U.S. and Russia were staring each other down in what was later called the “Cuban Missile Crisis”. Blessed Pope John XXIII, urged both parties to “spare the world from the horrors of a war whose terrifying consequences no one can predict”.  A short time later, Russia withdrew the missiles from Cuba and war was averted.

          In April of 1963, Pope John XXIII issued his encyclical Peace on Earth (Pacem in terris), and this year we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of this amazing document. The topic of the encyclical is, as its title suggests, peace; but only the last chapters deal with the traditional issues of international peace. The beginning of the document is a long essay on all of the issues that support a peaceful earth: human rights, responsibilities, relations between people, and a very profound section that defines the “common good”.

         

          What is really significant is that Pope John interprets international relations based on the rights and dignity of human beings. He reasons that since all people have rights to a worthy standard of living, to food, clothing, shelter, and medical care, then whatever prevents societies from being able to provide those things to its citizens works against the common good.

          In particular, this is one of his major criticisms of the “arms race” at the time. Not only does it produce a world that lives in fear, but it increases the likelihood that war, in fact, will break out given the build-up of weapons around the world. Pope John called desperately for reducing the production of all weapons, and made an appeal that the stockpiles of weapons should be decreased, that all nuclear weapons should be banned, and nations should stop the financial outlay on armaments.

          Given this papal teaching, what are we to think about the current situation of arms and weapons in our own country? The state of affairs here in the U.S. is quite disturbing in light of this encyclical by Pope John.

          For example, here in the United States we spent over $1 trillion (yes, that’s trillion) on the military last year, including the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That number includes defense, weapons, nuclear arms, military personnel – everything related to our military operations.

          And, most startling, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, that represents over 40% of all the spending on military in the entire world. By comparison, China’s spending, which is second, is only about 8%, and Russia’s is only about 4%. With what Pope John said about reducing spending on arms, shouldn't we be uncomfortable with that amount of money going to military purposes?

          When it comes to nuclear stockpiles, it is estimated that the United States has over 7.700 nuclear weapons right now. And, we are planning to spend over $600 billion over the next ten years to increase that number. How can we reconcile that with Pope John’s teaching (and continued Catholic teaching) about reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons?

          These are very difficult questions that we must wrestle with as Catholics – both in our own consciences as well as in our parishes and our schools and in discussion with each other. What seems to be clear is that we cannot dismiss this landmark teaching of Blessed Pope John XXIII easily without risking doing damage to our Catholic conscience.