Dear President Biden,

Advent blessings to you and your family. I write you today to urge you to take more concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament. While I thank you for the commitments you have made to peace, including by returning the United States to the table of international relations, renewing the New START treaty, and rejoining the Paris Agreement, the twin existential threats of climate change and nuclear annihilation remain. We must rid the world of these weapons that threaten peace, the climate, and life on our planet.

The Catholic Church has declared the very possession of nuclear weapons to be immoral and unacceptable, even for purposes of deterrence. In the words of Pope Francis at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral… We will be judged on this… How can we speak of peace even as we build terrifying new weapons of war?”

I urge you to join the Holy See and 85 other nations in signing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). I join the Catholic leaders and leading scientists who appealed to you in May of 2021 to affirm the TPNW as complementary to our existing obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other agreements. I urge you to work for a successful conclusion at the Tenth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, with nuclear states honoring their disarmament obligations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that true security is won through cooperation and addressing human needs, not through arms and violence. Investment in nuclear weapons robs precious resources from the poor. By stopping spending on new ICBMs and other new weapons and modernization programs, we would save hundreds of billions of dollars that could be invested in healthcare, climate action, food security, and nonviolent tools for conflict transformation.

Decades ago, President Reagan set a goal of total nuclear disarmament. President Obama took important steps inching us closer to that vision. Please, take steps now to make nuclear disarmament a reality before it is too late.

Thank you. May God grant you the strength, clarity, and resolve to rid the earth of these weapons of mass destruction once and for all.

Sincerely,