On Twitter, Pope Francis restated that the use of nuclear weapons as well as their mere possession is immoral.
The Pope's message comes at the start of the Tenth Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty held throughout the month of August in New York.
ANTONIO GUTERRES
Secretary-General, United Nations
The clouds that parted following the end of the Cold War are gathering once more. We have been extraordinarily lucky so far. But luck is not a strategy. Nor is it a shield from geopolitical tensions boiling over into nuclear conflict. Today, humanity is just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.
The Holy See has been working to step up its opposition to nuclear weapons in recent months. Pope Francis recently met with the head of the UN's disarmament office, and sent this message to nuclear disarmament conference in Vienna.
ABP. PAUL RICHARD GALLAGHER
Vatican Secretary for Relations with States
Here, I wish to reaffirm that the use of nuclear weapons, as well as their mere possession, is immoral.
The Non-Proliferatuion Treaty went into effect in 1970, yet several countries have since developed nuclear weapons. Today, almost 13,000 nuclear weapons are now being held in arsenals around the world.
JM
