DESPITE warnings that he might face charges after his speech last month, urging troops to disobey orders to fire nuclear weapons, Mgr Bruce Kent has repeated his efforts to persuade soldiers to disobey orders under these circumstances.
Speaking at a Miners' Gala in Edinburgh this week, he said: "Our troops guarding Greenham are being turned into potential war criminals. No soldier is obliged to obey an illegal order. He is forbidden to do so. To have any part in the preparations for firing cruise missiles into Europe in the hope, as our Government says, of stopping the Russians at the eleventh hour, is a crime. If troops have no other way of avoiding such orders, they ought to refuse them. I urge them to do so". The speech gave support to the miners' strike and for socialism generally and referred to "the futility of the Falklands war".
Mgr Kent's latest demarche came in an eventful week of Catholic peace activities. Christian CND staged what has been called the biggest civil disobedience act by Christians. About 150 people demonstrated in the Mall with the message "Bread not Bombs". They were stopped by the police for obstructing the highway.
Mrs Martin of Catholic Peace Action was fined £50 by Horseferry Road magistrates. She refused to pay and was sent to prison for seven days. She received a letter of support from Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, Bishop of Detroit and Vice President of International Pax Christi.