BISHOP & NUCLEAR WAR

S IR,-A recent number of the C.H. reported a statement by Bishop Charriere of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg that nuclear Warfare may be lawfully employed in • defence against unjust aggression.

In fact traditional Catholic teachilig tells us that a war otherwise justifiable becomes unjustifiable if (a) the good to be achieved by victory is clearly less than the evil produced by war; (b) immoral means of warfare are employed.

It should be obvious that the mutual massacre of millions cannot produce for either party to such a war any good commensurate with such evil. It is indeed absurd to speak of a defence involving the wholesale slaughter of those whose rights are to be defended.

It is equally obvious that the indiscriminate slaughter of the civilian population including children, old people, invalids, is an immoral method of warfare. If such conduct could under any circumstances be moral, morality is meaningless. Nothing can reasonably be pronounced immoral. Invite Bishop Charriere to read the pronouncements of Archbishop Roberts, of Bishop Fulton Sheen. and the Pastoral Letter of the French Cardinals and Archbishops issued in June, 1950. He will find ample episcopal confirmation of the position I have summarised above and accordingly, justification of my protest.

E. I. Watkin 4 1 Barton Road, Torquay.