In 2007, our the Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids voted overwhelmingly to support a Corporate Stance on the Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons
August 5, 2025 — The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids join voices of faith in a statement supporting the abolishment of nuclear weapons, marking 80 years since the United States first used nuclear weapons.
“Speaking out against nuclear weapons is not new to our Congregation. Few people are aware of the test nuclear explosion in New Mexico, USA, proceeded dropping atomic bombs in Japan,” said Megan McElroy, OP, prioress of the Dominican Sisters Grand Rapids. But we know. Since 1925, well over 400 Grand Rapids Dominican Sisters have served in ministries throughout New Mexico, and scores of Sisters with family roots in New Mexico have served God’s people in Michigan and beyond.
Our Corporate Stance:
Corporate Stance on the Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons
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.
Joint Statement 2025
Joint Interfaith Statement Marking 80 Years Since First Use of Nuclear Weapons — August 5, 2025
We as people of faith join in solidarity, with our voices and our power, for disarmament, nuclear abolition, and ways of being that are in the right relationship.
On July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first nuclear explosion in the Tularosa Basin of New Mexico–causing radioactive ash to rain down, contaminating the land, water, food, and air throughout the region. Just weeks later, Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the first cities to experience the hell on Earth of nuclear weapon attacks on August 6 and 9, 1945.
Since these early days of the nuclear age, countless survivors of the Trinity Test and of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—the hibakusha and their descendants—have been joined in both their suffering and their survival by other communities who have borne the intolerable consequences of nuclear development, weapons testing, and accidents: from Shinkolobwe to Church Rock, from the Republic of the Marshall Islands to Semipalatinsk to In Ekker, from Three Mile Island to Chernobyl to Fukushima. The effects of these and many other disasters—some intentional, some accidental—have left legacies of sickness, sorrow, and resistance.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were deliberate attacks, intended to result in mass deaths and total destruction, while the 2000+ nuclear weapons tests have been done with complete disregard to the consequences, in order to kill elsewhere and to demonstrate strength to enemies. The ongoing destruction and violence of the development of nuclear technologies and nuclear accidents demonstrate how dangerous we have made our world towards these ends.
Our spiritual traditions inform our perspectives: while humanity is capable of inflicting grave, even apocalyptic harm, humanity is also capable of collaborating in solidarity for life and well-being.
Today, as unbearable violence and conflicts plague the world, we as faith communities and organizations join with the rising movement of people—awakened to the intolerable nature of violence and greed—to call for peace, nuclear abolition, and justice in all their forms.
While the challenges are immense, this is a time to affirm that another way is possible: one rooted in solidarity, human dignity, and hope. The 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings offers a critical moment to reimagine our priorities. For example, by redirecting the approximately $100 billion spent on nuclear weapons development in 2024 instead toward health, education, human rights, and ecological well-being, we could make a profound difference in supporting the realization of the UN 2030 Agenda and responding to the crises of our time.
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2025 — Santa Fe Archbishop Wester on RECA, Nuclear Weapons
“Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester prayed at an event for peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons. Wester recently stopped by our studio to talk with Correspondent Russell Contreras about the New Mexico Downwinders finally getting access to compensation, and how he sees the federal government still falling short.”
The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids continue to affirm the position of Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, who in 2023, said:
“Nuclear weapons are deeply immoral because of their indiscriminate killing of women, children, noncombatants, the old, the newborn and the infirm. In peacetime they rob resources from the needy and the poor.”
“Things are arguably even more risky today given today’s multiple nuclear actors, new cyber threats, new hypersonic weapons and the advent of artificial intelligence. How do we get out of this unprecedented danger?”
What Can You Do?
Today, survivors of nuclear weapons ask just one thing of us: Share our stories. Carry our memory. Continue our fight.
