Nuclear weapons unfair to submariners? Yes, probably, but not for the reasons given by Peter Moffat (The Tablet, Letters 9 May). Sadly, the people in submarines do have to be "ready and willing to murder millions of innocent people" as Brian Wicker (The Tablet, 25 April) says. Without that the nuclear deterrent would be ineffective. But the rest of us are surely equally guilty. If we accept nuclear weapons for our defence, then morally, we hold them in our own hands. We have sanctioned actions that are vastly more murderous than anything done by Islamic State, Boko Haram and others.
Martin Birdseye, Co-Chairman Christian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Hounslow
Peter Moffat may have reservations about the phrasing of Brian Wicker's letter on Trident's capacity to reduce whole cities and their inhabitants to ash and radiation. The fact remains, however, that the possession as well as the actual use of nuclear weapons cannot be reconciled with Catholic Teaching. To quote from the paper "Nuclear Disarmament: Time for Abolition", which was the Holy See's contribution to the Vienna Conference on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons in December 2014: "Now is the time to affirm not only the immorality of the use of nuclear weapons, but the immorality of their possession, thereby clearing the way to nuclear abolition".
The Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty is taking place at the moment in New York. Will the Catholic media be giving this the coverage it warrants in view of the consistent Papal teaching on nuclear weapon?
Anne Dodd, Abingdon, Oxford
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