Scottish Catholic Observer

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien has urged the UK Government to give up its ‘shameful’ nuclear weapons programme.

His Eminence was addressing an Easter witness for peace against nuclear weapons outside the Faslane naval base on Gare Loch where he was joined by representatives from churches across Scotland.

Quoting the words of Pope Benedict XVI, the cardinal said: “In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims.”

Speaking out

Cardinal O’Brien, who was protesting at Faslane for the first time, said he had been an opponent of nuclear weapons for many years.

“I’ve been speaking of the teaching of the Catholic Church on nuclear weapons for many years now, telling our message to whoever is willing to listen, and I’m very pleased to repeat that teaching again,” Cardinal O’Brien said. “As you’ll see, it is a consistent teaching, a central part of our pro-life stance, that has human dignity at its very core and it is a message I’m all the more glad to repeat here at the gates of Faslane, which is the very heart of Britain’s nuclear weapons industry.”

Cardinal O’Brien said Trident was becoming obsolete, and as a result, the opportunity is there to give it up.

“Here at the gates of Faslane, there is no better place to say that it is not courageous of Britain to have these dreadful weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “It is shameful to have them. If our government wished to truly be courageous it would unilaterally give up its nuclear deterrent, giving the witness and impetus for other nations to do the same.”

The cardinal also said that the trade in weapons was a threat to human happiness.

“Weapons production, from the smallest handgun to rocket launchers, and fighter aircraft, is big business, a massive industry, and to our shame, Britain has a leading role,” His Eminence said. “To quote Pope Benedict yet again: ‘How can there ever be a future of peace when investments are still made in the production of arms and in research aimed at developing new ones?’”

The cardinal said he had seen the truth of this all over the world.

“Time and time again, as I journey with SCIAF to visit development projects supported by the people of Scotland. The poorest in the world pay the highest price for an arms trade that brings misery to them, and fortunes to the companies that develop and produce the weapons,” he said.”

United opposition

Cardinal O’Brien also said he was delighted to be at Faslane with his old friends Rev Alan McDonald, former moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland and CND activist  .

“We three first spoke together in Edinburgh, in 2006, at the opening of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre,” the cardinal said. “We have since shared platforms in Glasgow and elsewhere, and I think we’ll all be ready and willing to do so for some time to come too, indeed, for as long as it takes.

“We’ll do this because the message we share here is a vital one, a fundamental one, one which is at the heart of Christian faith.”

The cardinal also added that he was delighted that he had finally been able to go to Faslane and protest in person.

“I’ve had many invitations to come here for ecumenical events over the years, and have thus far been unable to accept, so I’m particularly glad to be able to do so now,” he said.  “At this present time, when there is more need than ever before to be rid of our weapons of mass destruction.”

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