(Vatican Radio) In his weekly editorial, Fr. Federico Lombardi, sj, director of
the Press Office of the Holy See, reflects on the need to reduce and control arms.
Below is Vatican Radio's English translation. The initiatives announced by
the United States government in view of limiting and controlling the diffusion and
use of arms are certainly a step in the right direction. It is estimated that Americans
today possess about 300 million firearms. No one can be under the illusion that limiting
their number and use would be enough to impede horrendous massacres in the future,
such as the one in Newtown, which shook the conscience of Americans and of the world,
of children and adults alike. But it would be much worse if we were to satisfy ourselves
with only words. And if the massacres are carried out by people with mental illness
or distorted by hate, there is no doubt that they are carried out with arms. Forty-seven
religious leaders of various confessions and religions have issued a call to American
politicians to limit firearms, which “are making society pay an unacceptable price
in terms of massacres and senseless deaths”. I’m with them.
But while American
society is engaged in this debate of dutiful civil and moral growth, we cannot but
widen our gaze to recall that arms, throughout the world, are also instruments for
legitimate defense, but surely they are everywhere the main instruments used to bring
threats, violence and death. Therefore, it is necessary to repeat tirelessly our calls
for disarmament, to oppose the production, trade, and smuggling of arms of all types,
fuelled by dishonourable interests for power or financial gain. If results are achieved,
such as international conventions, the ban of landmines and other deadly arms, the
reduction of the immense and disproportionate number of nuclear warheads…all the better!
But weapons are and will always be too many. As the Pope said while travelling to
Lebanon, we are all distraught by the massacres in Syria, but the weapons continue
to arrive. Peace is born from the heart, but it will be easier to achieve if we have
fewer weapons in hand.