This month, as we commemorate the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am writing to urge you to reduce armed defense spending in the 2022 budget, starting with nuclear weapons modernization programs.

As a person of faith, I am alarmed at the existential threat – to human life and to all of creation – posed by these weapons of mass destruction. Pope Francis has stated clearly that the mere possession of nuclear weapons is immoral and unacceptable. Nuclear weapons do not make us more secure.

Especially as the government responds with multi-trillion-dollar spending packages to counter global challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, saving money by cutting unnecessary nuclear programs makes ethical and fiscal sense. For over half a century, the Catholic Church has called on nations to reallocate funds from weapons and war to dire human security needs and economic development. Never has the need to heed this call been as clear as it is this year.

You can begin by cutting funding for destabilizing and unnecessary new weapons, like the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the nuclear-tipped Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N), and the low-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead. Eliminating these programs would save vast amounts of money we need for programs like COVID-19 recovery and green jobs that make all of us more secure.

I was disappointed in President Biden’s proposal to increase the amount budgeted for armed defense, and in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s decision to increase that amount even more. I implore you to reject these increases. In memory of the hundreds of thousands killed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 76 years ago, and in honor of future generations, please work to build a more peaceful world by cutting funding for nuclear weapons. Thank you.

This month, as we commemorate the 76th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I am writing to urge you to reduce armed defense spending in the 2022 budget, starting with nuclear weapons modernization programs.

As a person of faith, I am alarmed at the existential threat – to human life and to all of creation – posed by these weapons of mass destruction. Pope Francis has stated clearly that the mere possession of nuclear weapons is immoral and unacceptable. Nuclear weapons do not make us more secure.

Especially as the government responds with multi-trillion-dollar spending packages to counter global challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic to the climate crisis, saving money by cutting unnecessary nuclear programs makes ethical and fiscal sense. For over half a century, the Catholic Church has called on nations to reallocate funds from weapons and war to dire human security needs and economic development. Never has the need to heed this call been as clear as it is this year.

You can begin by cutting funding for destabilizing and unnecessary new weapons, like the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the nuclear-tipped Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N), and the low-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead. Eliminating these programs would save vast amounts of money we need for programs like COVID-19 recovery and green jobs that make all of us more secure.

I was disappointed in President Biden’s proposal to increase the amount budgeted for armed defense, and in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s decision to increase that amount even more. I implore you to reject these increases. In memory of the hundreds of thousands killed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 76 years ago, and in honor of future generations, please work to build a more peaceful world by cutting funding for nuclear weapons. Thank you.