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ICAN pays tribute to His Holiness Pope Francis who passed away today, April 21st. He was 88 years old and had been Pope since 2013.
Pope Francis was a champion of nuclear disarmament and a strong advocate for the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Under his leadership, the Vatican was one of the first states to ratify the TPNW when it opened for signature in 2017.
During a historic visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 2019, when he met survivors of the atomic bombings of those cities, Pope Francis condemned the use and possession of nuclear weapons as “immoral” and urged support for “the principal international legal instruments of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, including the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons”. He also said that a world without nuclear weapons is “possible and necessary”.
Pope Francis was a strong critic of the doctrine of nuclear deterrence. During his speech in Nagasaki, he said that “nuclear doctrines” foment “a climate of fear, mistrust, and hostility”, adding that the possession of nuclear weapons is never the answer to our longings for security, peace, and stability. Nuclear weapons only ever afford a “false sense of security”, he said, as peace cannot be achieved through “the threat of total annihilation”.
Our thoughts are with Catholics around the world at this difficult time.