Catholic leaders should advocate for nuclear disarmament

I and others gathered outside the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meetings in Baltimore (“Bishops show lack of interest in pedophile victims,” Nov. 17). Sadly, women are still denied entry into that boys club. Another indignity was that the majority of the bishops voted Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military Services as their new president. He is a well-known opponent of the priorities of Pope Francis.

Each year, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests are present seeking answers from a church that did not protect them. And on Nov. 15, Unite Here Local 7 workers stopped working at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel to protest the lack of a new contract and said they may strike.

Those I stood with carried signs calling on the bishops to take a stance against nuclear weapons. By happenstance, we encountered Bishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, who authored a pastoral letter calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and for the support of the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We urged him to encourage Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, his good friend, to also write a similar pastoral letter. Wester indicated they are working on it.

Earlier this year, a group of us mailed Wester’s pastoral letter to 50 Baltimore parishes encouraging a dialogue about this extremely important issue. What this world desperately needs is nuclear disarmament and maybe a seed was planted in Baltimore.