Archbishop John Wester: What Conversations Can We Start on Nuclear Disarmament?

John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, recorded the following talk for the national gathering of the Catholic Worker movement in Chicago on October 4, 2024. A computer-generated transcript with links to some of the documents Archbishop Wester references follows below.

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Hello, my name is John Wester. I’m the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe in New Mexico. I want to thank you for inviting me to be a small part of your proceedings as Catholic Workers from all over the world celebrate the 50th anniversary of the St. Francis Catholic Worker House.

I’m just delighted to be with you. Thank you for inviting me and know of my prayers for you always and the great work that Catholic Workers do throughout the world, inspired by the great example of Dorothy Day. Early on in my priesthood back in the mid-70s, late 70s, I started teaching in a Catholic high school.

I once asked my students, “Everybody knows where they were when John Kennedy was assassinated. Where were you?” One student said, “Father Wester, we weren’t alive yet.” I realized, to my surprise, that I was asking a question they couldn’t relate to—I was only in my late twenties myself then. It’s even harder to ask people today where they were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis, of course, lasted about 13 days from October 16th to October 28th, 1962.

I remember it very vividly. I was 12 years old, walking home with my friends when we saw a plane overhead. We wondered if it was a Russian plane and if we were about to be bombed. Just two blocks away from us toward the ocean were the Nike missile sites. I don’t think I realized at the time that they had nuclear warheads.

Those Nike missile sites were intended as a last desperate act of defense if any H-bomb-carrying Soviet warplanes got through our initial defenses. Since that crisis, the world has changed. In late 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved, and it seemed as if nuclear weapons just faded into the background. But then in 2017, I visited Japan with two bishop friends on a two-week vacation.

During our trip, we went to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a deeply moving experience. We visited the Jimbaku Dome in Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, the Hypocenter in Nagasaki, the Urakami Cathedral, and the Habakku no Maria—an image of Our Blessed Mother whose statue was destroyed except for her face in the bombing on August 9th at 11:01 a.m., 1945.

What really touched me were the images of children running to their school windows when they saw the flash of light. I felt deeply for them and the great tragedy they endured. Upon my return home, I found myself visiting Santa Fe’s Los Alamos with friends. Los Alamos, of course, is part of our Archdiocese of Santa Fe. We visited the New Mexico History Museum, which has a large display on the Manhattan Project.

I realized that I was living in a false sense of complacency regarding nuclear weapons. Our Archdiocese is at the epicenter of the nuclear age—the Trinity test took place here on July 16th, 1945, where Oppenheimer and his team developed and deployed Little Boy and Fat Man. I realized that our local Church needs to be at the forefront advocating for verifiable, multilateral nuclear disarmament.

As I reflected on the fear that nuclear weapons should instill in all of us, I realized how much more dangerous the world has become since 1945. For example, just one Trident submarine, stationed in the Seattle area, can unleash up to 192 nuclear warheads, with the potential to wipe out civilization. We are in a new nuclear arms race that is arguably more dangerous than the first, with cyber weapons, hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, and multiple nuclear adversaries—all amid climate change and economic instability.

The old rationale that we need thousands of nuclear weapons for deterrence is flawed. Only a few hundred are needed for true deterrence, yet both the United States and Russia continue building nuclear arsenals for war-fighting purposes, despite rhetoric stating that a nuclear war can never be won.

In January of 2022, I published my pastoral letter, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament.” Its purpose is to reawaken an awareness of the critical importance of eliminating these destructive weapons, which originated here in Santa Fe, and to proclaim loudly that they are an affront to our Creator. It is my hope and prayer that this conversation can lead to verifiable, multilateral nuclear disarmament.

President John F. Kennedy started such a conversation with Nikita Khrushchev with his peace speech at American University on June 10, 1963. Tragically, he was assassinated just months later. I encourage everyone to read that speech—it’s quite powerful. Similarly, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev began a dialogue that led to the INF Treaty on December 8, 1987—an important feast for our Blessed Mother in the Catholic Church.

What conversations can we start today? I am inspired by the many conversations already underway, such as those led by Dr. Ira Helfand of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. I think of organizations like Pax Christi USA, the Massachusetts Peace Action, Plowshares, Nuclear Watch New Mexico, and many others.

There have been numerous religious conversations too. In our Catholic tradition, Pope St. John XXIII, Pope St. Paul VI, Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict, and Pope Francis have all spoken against nuclear weapons. Pope Francis went so far as to declare even the possession of nuclear weapons to be immoral in 2019—a monumental shift away from the idea of deterrence. We need conversations about this.

Here in New Mexico, the New Mexico Conference of Churches endorsed my pastoral letter, and the Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe has hosted conversations on this topic. Soka Gakkai has been a key partner in our Trinity Test prayer commemorations. I have also been inspired by San Egidio’s peace initiatives, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and the United Religions Initiative led by my friend Bishop William Swing.

On a more local level, we’ve reached out to the Diocese of Hiroshima and the Archdiocese of Nagasaki to form a partnership, which they, coincidentally, had also initiated. Archbishop Etchin of Seattle has joined us, forming a partnership of four Catholic dioceses—Seattle, Santa Fe, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki—called “A World Without Nuclear Weapons.”

Recently, we held a forum at the University of New Mexico sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC and the University of New Mexico, titled “Deterrence or Disarmament.” We gathered leaders from various sectors to discuss how we can advance this conversation toward nuclear disarmament.

What is vital now is that we all play our part to keep this vital conversation alive. We were lulled into complacency after the Cold War ended, but that narrative is false. It’s often said that pursuing disarmament is naive—but isn’t it truly naive to think we can rely on luck to avoid nuclear catastrophe?

Robert McNamara, the Defense Secretary during the Cuban Missile Crisis, said that humanity survived that moment only by luck. Counting on luck is not a sustainable strategy. The history of nuclear weapons is full of near-misses, accidents, and miscalculations. With the war in Ukraine, we are facing the gravest nuclear threats since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I believe this is truly a pro-life issue. In August 2025, we will mark the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I hope that by then we will see concrete steps toward supporting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. While no nuclear state has yet signed the treaty, I join many in advocating for this step.

I was privileged to attend the UN conference for the Treaty in 2023, and I plan to attend again in 2025. I hope and pray that all of us can sustain conversations that promote nuclear disarmament. I assure you of my prayers for your gathering—it’s a wonderful way to support this vital cause.

As General Omar Bradley once said, “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.” The recent movie “Oppenheimer” has reminded many of us of the threats we face in this nuclear age.

May the conversation begun by my pastoral letter join the countless other voices calling for nuclear disarmament, including yours. The downwinders of New Mexico and the hibakusha of Japan are living witnesses to the importance of this conversation. May God, who has begun the good work in us, bring it to fulfillment.

God bless you all.