Support Common Sense Nuclear Arms Control

On January 27, the hands of the Doomsday Clock were moved to 85 seconds to midnight – the closest the clock has ever been to global catastrophe. Citing a “failure of leadership,” members of the board that sets that clock said a primary factor was the lack of negotiations toward a follow-on treaty to replace New START, the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia, which will expire in one week, at midnight on February 4.  

Throughout the last year, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns has worked with interfaith partners, Catholic leaders, and national security experts to advocate for a new treaty aimed at avoiding a new nuclear arms race. In the words of Pope Leo XIV, “true peace demands the courageous laying down of weapons—especially those with the power to cause an indescribable catastrophe. Nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard.” He calls on world leaders to pursue “a peace that is unarmed and disarming.”  

But despite multiple positive statements from President Trump expressing interest in such negotiations, in maintaining the current caps on U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles under New START, and on broader denuclearization, no progress has been made. Russia has expressed that it will maintain the current caps if the United States will, and that it will be watching to see how the United States proceeds. The ball is in our court. Write to President Trump and your Members of Congress today, and urge them to stop a new nuclear arms race and work to rid the world of nuclear weapons before it is too late.  

Photo: Doomsday Clock, available in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons.