On this date of November 15, 2007 and the  Feast of St. Albert the Great (Dominican preacher, teacher and scientist) the Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids, MI announce that we have joined with the Federation of Dominican Sisters USA in a corporate stance for nuclear disarmament. A vote of members was taken; there was overwhelming support for the Disarmament Statement.

Corporate Stance on Nuclear Disarmament

The Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids call upon the United States government to lead the way for the global abolition of nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction by adopting a plan to lock down, dismantle, reduce, and eliminate nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction.

We call for immediate development, adoption and implementation of a plan that will ensure that there will be no new nuclear weapons, no new materials for nuclear weapons, and no testing of nuclear weapons.

We will work with all people of goodwill until there is no chance that a nuclear weapon or other weapon of mass destruction can come into the hands of anyone wishing to do harm.

 

RATIONALE

We believe that humanity has been living in the shadow of nuclear weapons for too long. Earth has been desecrated by the testing of nuclear arms. Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction continue to pose a threat to all creation. Our country cannot rightly seek to halt the spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, while maintaining our own stockpile of weapons and developing new armament capabilities. We stand with scientists and military leaders who believe that eliminating nuclear weapons will make our world safer for all forms of life. The first step is to develop a detailed plan to lock down, reduce and eliminate nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction.

HISTORY OF THE PROPOSAL

The request for the stance was born within a gathering of Dominicans at the 2005 Federation of Dominican Sisters USA meeting in Chicago. Encouraged by the actions of Dominican Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth Platte, the Federation Gathering wanted to act in solidarity with our sisters by committing to the same cause — nuclear disarmament.

THEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Catholic Social or Papal Teaching does not support the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons.

  • “The Church’s social teaching proposes the goal of general, balanced and controlled disarmament. The enormous increase in arms represents a grave threat to stability and peace. Policies of nuclear deterrence must be replaced with concrete measures of disarmament based on dialogue and multilateral negotiations.”
    Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church, Vatican City, 2004, #508
    “The Holy See emphasizes that the peace we seek in the 21st century cannot be attained by relying on nuclear weapons. . . nuclear weapons assault life on the planet, they assault the planet itself and in so doing they assault the process of the continuing development of the planet.”
    Archbishop Celestine Migliore, Vatican Representative to the U.N., May 4, 2005
  • “. . .What can be said, too, about those governments which count on nuclear arms as a means of ensuring the security of their countries? Along with countless persons of good will, one can state that this point of view is not only baneful but also completely fallacious. In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims. The truth of peace requires that all — whether those governments which openly or secretly possess nuclear arms or those planning to acquire them — agree to change their course by clear and firm decision, and strive for progressive and concerted nuclear disarmament.
  • One can only note with dismay the evidence of a continuing growth in military expenditure and the flourishing arms trade, while the political and juridical process established by the international community for promoting disarmament is bogged down in general indifference. How can there ever be a future of peace when investments are still made in the production of arms and in research aimed at developing new ones?”  Pope Benedict XVI Message for World Peace Day, 2006

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Prayer for Nuclear Disarmament

You have given us life, intelligence and the beauty of Creation, O God.
Your good gifts were given so we might be stewards of all that is alive.
In our arrogance, we have unleashed fearful forces that destroy.
We have brought down fierce fire from the sky.
Your children have been burned, your gentle green earth scorched.

Fear rules us now, not Love; we have given in to evils, lesser and greater.
In your mercy, help us turn from destruction, from bombs and barricades.
Lead us to Life again, to affirmation of all goodness and to international disarmament.
With your grace, may we begin to dismantle the bombs, beat our swords into plowshares, and so transform the nuclear nightmare into the peace you have proposed.
Hear our prayer, O God, and guide us in your ways. Amen

 

More recent news about the Dominican Sisters Grand Rapids and Nuclear Disarmament