“Nuclear war can’t be won”: US bishops urge prayer for peace

A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” insisted the US bishops in response to the escalation in Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Bishop David Malloy, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace condemned threats made during the current 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly to use nuclear weapons in the Russia-Ukraine war.

The bishops released a brief statement on September 23:

As tensions grow at the UN General Assembly, growing rhetorical gestures threatening the use of nuclear weapons must be condemned. A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Any threat made to use nuclear weapons reminds us of their heinous nature and disastrous consequences for all of humanity.

Let us continue to pray for the leaders of the world – that the hopes and dreams we share in common for our peoples will triumph over the tempers and injustice wrought by this war in Ukraine.

Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The air of diplomacy in Lavrov’s meeting with Cardinal Parolin were in contrast to a tense meeting of the UN Security Council, which Lavrov attended. As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russian forces of torture and the killing of civilians in areas of Ukraine they had occupied, Lavrov counter-charged that Ukraine’s military killed civilians in the Russian-speaking areas of Eastern Ukraine “with impunity.”

On Wednesday, the Pope mentioned the Russian president’s apparent threat to use nuclear weapons: “… some people are thinking of nuclear weapons, that madness …,” he said.