Archbishop Pleas For Disarmament

Any discussion of disarmament and arms control must take several ideas into consideration and must understand the link between weapons reduction and people’s development, said the Vatican’s new representative to the United Nations. “Policies promoting disarmament and arms control reflect an idea of order which the people of the world desire,” said Archbishop Francis Chullikatt. The archbishop spoke before a committee of the U.N. General Assembly during general debate on disarmament and international security on Oct. 11. In his address he decried the increase in world military expenditure during the last decade and echoed the decades-old plea of the Holy See in favor of reducing military spending in order to redirect resources to the poor and create a world fund for development programs. He also warned that the sale of arms was not equivalent to “other goods in the marketplace,” noting that the possession, production and trade of military weapons must be regulated since they carry with them “deep ethical and social implications.”