In July 2017, 122 nations at the United Nations approved a final draft of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Those nations represented most of the world’s people.

The treaty stipulated that it would become international law once 50 countries had ratified it. That happened on Jan. 22, 2021. At present, 68 countries have ratified the treaty, and 92 have signed it.

In 2019, Pope Francis declared that nuclear weapons are “immoral.”

What does all this mean? It means that by the standards of Catholic morality, nuclear weapons, with their killing power, are a mortal sin. It means that nuclear weapons are illegal. It means that every nuclear weapons state is a rogue nation, along with every other country that allows nuclear weapons to be stored within its borders. It means that it’s time to abolish nuclear weapons, before they abolish us.

John Raby
Scarborough