On Friday, January, 31, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, represented by Msgr. Silvano Maria Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio, and Alessio Pecorario, Official of the Dicastery, will participate in a workshop organized by the Berkley Center of the Georgetown University in Washington DC, titled "The Pope and the Bomb: beyond Deterrence".
As stated by GU in its website, "the seminar will address the current state of nuclear geopolitics, alternative approaches to nuclear disarmament, and moral and pastoral implications of the Catholic Church’s evolving position on deterrence and nuclear disarmament".
Card. Peter K.A. Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery, sent a speech, read by the representatives of the same institution of the Holy See. His Eminence said that "today, we are witnessing a growing awareness that each individual person, and all people collectively, are involved in arms control. Thus the concept of “humanitarian disarmament” which is spearheaded by civil society groups, with membership spanning the globe, is a people-centered approach to disarmament. It focuses on preventing and remediating human suffering and environmental harm, rather than on advancing national security".
This is why, he underlined in his message, "to contribute to this disarmament momentum, our Dicastery proposes to frame the dialogue on disarmament within the broader context of peacebuilding. This comprises the concept of “integral disarmament”, which, as explained by St. Pope John XXIII, does not only refer to State armaments. Rather it calls on every person to disarm his or her own heart and to be a peacemaker everywhere (Pacem in terris, §113)".
The workshop, supported by a grant from the Nuclear Threat Initiative, is co-sponsored by the Initiative on Revitalizing Catholic Engagement on Nuclear Disarmament, a collaboration of Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs; the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame; and the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.