Trident, a trigger for independence

JOSEPH Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, once boasted: “Even if we lose, we will win, because our ideas will have penetrated the hearts of our enemies.” Never has a prophecy been more true.

It came to mind when Theresa May said that she would personally press the button and kill millions of people. The Nazi theory of “Total War” is alive and well. It lives on in Trident (Anti-Trident protests among the biggest since the Iraq war, News, July 17).

I do not know what she believes in that justifies such carnage. Whatever it is, I reject it with every fibre of my being. I would not sacrifice the life of one child for any god, any cause, religion, or ideology.

Theresa May claims to be a Christian. How can she reconcile her willingness to slaughter untold millions, with fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus? Was Jesus only kidding when he said: “Whatever you do to these, the least of my brethren, you do to me”?

Each of our targeted victims is a son or daughter of our One Father, our brother and sister, an “alter Christus”.

In 2002, Philip Berrigan, the former Jesuit priest who led opposition to the Vietnam war, died.

In a last statement, he said: “I die with the conviction, held since 1968 and Catonsville, that nuclear weapons are the scourge of the earth; to mine for them, manufacture them, deploy them, use them, is a curse against God, the human family, and the earth itself”.

This is an issue of such overwhelming moral magnitude that, if the British Government insists on replacement, I would urge our MPs to leave the House of Commons, and make a unilateral declaration of independence.

If this issue does not merit such a radical response, what does?