Is Nuclear Deterrence Still Moral?
T wenty years ago, the Doomsday Clock, a well-known barometer of how close the world was to nuclear holocaust, stood at three minutes before the fateful midnight hour. The nuclear arms race was in full force. The fear of nuclear war was palpable. We held our collective breath and prayed mightily that God would stay the hands that held the power to launch the unthinkable. In the midst of this charged climate, the U.S. Catholic bishops issued their landmark document, The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response (1983), commonly referred to as their peace pastoral. The bishops asserted the full weight of their moral authority, boldly declaring their opposition to the use of nuclear weapons as they cited the massive and indiscriminate destruction they would inflict. “In the words of our Holy Father,” they wrote, “we need a ‘moral about-face.’ The whole world must summon the moral courage and technical means to say ‘no’ to nuclear conflict and ‘no’ to the moral danger of a nuclear
