PAX Christi marked the Prime Minister's departure for Moscow with a letter reminding her of the Pope's description of nuclear deterrence as a "purely temporary expedient".
The letter also urged Mrs Thatcher "to respond positively to Mr Gorbachev's programme to abolish nuclear weapons by the year 2000," and to see the dismantling of British nuclear weaponary as a stage in multilateral disarmament."
Owen Hardwicke, General Secretary of Pax, Christi, who signed the letter warned that human rights and nuclear disarmament are two distinct issues and that it "would be unhelpful if progress on one were made in any way conditional on the other."
He also drew attention to the pleas of recent Popes which have called for governments to make "audacious gestures" as part of the "moral about turn" necessary for humanity to survive.