Landmines & Social Justice

This past week, the Office of International Justice and Peace of the US bishops issued an Action Alert, asking Catholics to make their voices heard regarding a treaty to ban landmines. The alert points out that, "Landmines are 'inhumanly insidious because they continue to cause harm even long after the cessation of hostilities.' The U.S. bishops have long supported elimination of landmines as they are indiscriminate, morally unacceptable weapons that do not distinguish between soldier and civilian, or between times of war and times of peace."
       Download the full Action Alert at http://bit.ly/9Flf0j. It has the instructions for contacting the President and your US Senators about ratifying this treaty.
Copyright © 2010, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins. (http://bit.ly/16p8ws)
 

Nuclear Disarmament & Social Justice

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has welcomed the signing of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and the Russian Federation, according to an April 8 letter from the president of the USCCB to President Barack Obama. The letter states, “The horribly destructive capacity of nuclear arms makes them disproportionate and indiscriminate weapons that endanger human life and dignity like no other armaments. Their use as a weapon of war is rejected in Church teaching based on just war norms."

       The treaty now goes to the US Senate for ratification, and the USCCB is asking that Catholics urge their senators and urge them to give bipartisan support to the New START Treaty. For information on contacting your senators, visit www.senate.gov. You can also call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.

       For more information on the USCCB letter to President Obama and other resources related to nuclear weapons, go to www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/nuclear.shtml.
Copyright © 2010, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins. (http://bit.ly/16p8ws)