The Holy See greeted the Draft Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Arms, adopted at the United nations on July 7, 2017 by 122 countries. For Monsignor Silvano Maria Tomasi, Delegate Secretary of the Dicastery at the Service of Integral Human Development, “this very important vote is a new step in the search for peace.”
Speaking on Vatican Radio, Monsignor Tomasi recalled that “for some years, certain States, including the Holy See, have worked to arrive at banishing not only the usage but also the possession of nuclear arms.”To acquire and possess nuclear arms or explosive nuclear devices is truly unacceptable,” he stressed. “And with this Treaty, it can no longer be done.”
And Tomasi rejoiced over the opening of a way “to create a mentality that leads, finally, to the awareness that the security of a country and of all countries does not lie in the fact of having the atomic bomb but that no country has it.”
To the powers that disputed this Treaty as inapplicable, Monsignor Tomasi noted that nuclear dissuasion is no longer acceptable: we must take note that this mutual menace of death is not the way that the human family must use; the route to use is that of collaboration and the search for a permanent dialogue through effective international structures. Security is guaranteed by dialogue and not by force.”
The text will be open for ratification on September 20 and will come into force if signed by 50 countries.
