Archbishop Francis Chullikatt  Archbishop Francis Chullikatt
July 18, 2011  KANSAS CITY, MO. — Nuclear weapons have
"threatened humanity" for far too long and it is urgent to now
move to a "world without nuclear weapons," said the Vatican's
ambassador to the United Nations.  "Now is the time for a
profound rethinking and change in our perception of nuclear
weapons. Nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation are essential
from a humanitarian point of view," Archbishop Francis
Chullikatt said July 1.  The time is right to "begin addressing
in a systematic way the legal, political and technical
requisites for a nuclear weapons-free world," he said.  However,
the world's leaders lack the political will to remove "this
scourge," he told an audience in Kansas City.  Chullikatt
outlined the Church's "growing abhorrence" of nuclear weapons
and stressed that its condemnation of them has always been
grounded in respect for life and the dignity of the human
person.  Catholic teaching has always emphasized the need to mak