Containing The Church and Disarmament, Bishops' Conference Statement, Bishops' Pastoral on Peace and the Bishops' and the Foreign Office.
Nuclear deterrence and the problems of disarmament are at the forefront of the Church's concern in the modern world. In January 1978 the Bishops of England and Wales issued a joint Pastoral Letter as a preparation for the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly later that year. Every year since then the Bishops' Conference has considered various aspects of these problems, especially the morality of nuclear deterrence, and the huge scale of expenditure world-wide on military budgets, when hundreds of millions of people are in desperate need. At its meeting in November 1983 the Bishops' Conference issued a statement arising form the arrival of Cruise missiles in England. As well as this it agreed to pursue previous initiatives in relation to the British Government. It also decided to make representations to the Governments of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, through their Ambassadors, in support of appeals by Pope John Paul II to their Presidents. The Bishops further decided to issue a joint Pastoral Letter for the celebration of the Holy Father's World Day of Peace, observed in England and Wales on Peace Sunday, 29 January 1984. This booklet is the record of these recent initiatives . It is issued to encourage Christians in their concern over the great moral issues of our day which the Bishops share. May God enable us all to fulfil our responsibilities as Christians and as citizens, and so help the world to find true peace.
