Christians start Lent with call for the end of nuclear arms

ASH Wednesday begins the season of Lent, and is a time for repentance, remorse, and a change of heart.

Christians in Liverpool again held what has now become their annual event to express remorse for our government’s decision to renew and retain the Trident nuclear weapon system, and to support the call of Pope Francis and other church leaders to reject the use or possession of nuclear weapons altogether.

As the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into legal force in January 2021, such weapons are now illegal.

The Catholic Bishops of England and

Wales and Scotland issued a joint statement, calling on the UK ’to forsake its nuclear arsenal’ and use the savings ’to alleviate the suffering of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society, for the Common Good of all peoples’.

The event is organised by Liverpool members of Pax Christi, the International Catholic Peace Movement founded in 1945 to work for peace, reconciliation and the non-violent settlement of differences by negotiation, mutual respect, tolerance and compromise.

In view of the Covid pandemic, the size of this week’s event was much reduced.

The small number of participants did not walk in procession through the city centre as in previous years, but stood masked and safely distanced and carrying placards, in the piazza in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, as churchgoers arrived at and left midday Mass.