The Scottish bishops and young Catholics have released a video marking the 40th anniversary of the Scottish bishops’ statement opposing nuclear weapons.
The video, produced by Justice & Peace Scotland alongside Sancta Familia Media, featured four of Scotland’s bishops, pupils from Scottish Catholic schools, and Catholic anti-nuclear weapons activists re-reading the original statement.
The statement said that ‘if it is immoral to use these weapons it is also immoral to threaten their use.’
Archbishop William Nolan of Glasgow, President of Justice and Peace Scotland, said the continued existence of nuclear weapons was unacceptable.
“In March 1982 the Scottish Bishops published a pastoral letter on Peace and Disarmament,” he said.
“In this letter they challenged not just the use of nuclear weapons, something the church has always condemned, but they challenged also the very notion of deterrence and the morality of deterrence.
“That challenge was not accepted at the time but now more than ever the church has come to recognise that deterrence to is something which is unacceptable.!
Archbishop Nolan stated that the cost of acquiring and maintaining nuclear weapons could instead be used for ‘building up peace’.
As part of the campaign protesting nuclear weapons, messages of past and present popes will be sent parishes and secondary schools across Scotland.