Facing the looming nuclear threat

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Dear Judy,

Earlier this year, the Union of Concerned Scientists set their Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds before midnight, the closest to Doomsday in its history. If they reset the clock now, it would be even closer for several reasons, not least the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back public health spending and replace renewable energy funding with leases to develop more fossil fuel extraction. More imminent than pandemics or global warming, the possibility of nuclear war threatens most of the world because of ongoing conflicts in Gaza, India-Pakistan, and Ukraine, plus the recent US bombing of nuclear sites in Iran. (Use this link to read Pax Christi USA’s statement on the bombing.)

Each of these conflicts is persistent and has moved closer to the brink. In Palestine, the cutoff of humanitarian assistance, the rhetoric from the Israeli government, and the renewed bombing in Gaza have raised tensions in the region. In India-Pakistan, the long-standing dispute over Kashmir broke out in drone attacks and dogfights; although the worst violence has receded, the two sides are still shooting at each other, and each has about 170 nuclear warheads. In Ukraine, President Putin’s renewal of threats to use nuclear weapons undercuts the progress made toward peace talks.

According to Back from the Brink, the attacks on Iran, “initiated by Israel and now joined by the United States, [are] more likely to lead to what both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump say they are trying to prevent – a nuclear-armed Iran. Iran is now even more closely aligned with Russia and China and has indicated they may withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). A nuclear-armed Iran would likely incentivize several other Middle East nations to pursue the bomb. Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal did not prevent regional conflict but instead fueled military escalation. Iran’s potential pursuit of nuclear capability reflects a global system that rewards brute nuclear force over diplomacy.”

As we approach the 80th anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons in war, these tensions illustrate how nuclear deterrence, long considered a stabilizing force, is becoming increasingly unstable in a multipolar world. The theory of deterrence depends on rational actors, clear communication, and mutual restraint, conditions that have steadily eroded since the development of nuclear weapons. As more states threaten to use nuclear weapons or escalate tensions, the risks of miscalculation or provocation grows, revealing deterrence not as a reliable shield but as a fragile strategy with potentially global consequences.

Below are options for prayer, study and action. Many more are posted on the Pax Christi website at paxchristiusa.org/nuclear-disarmament.

Dear God,

Help me to serve your reign of peace by serving the global grassroots movement of nonviolence for the coming of your reign of peace here on earth.

Make me an instrument of your peace, that I might do my small part to help abolish war, poverty, hunger, executions, nuclear weapons, systemic injustice and environmental destruction, to make your nonviolent reign of peace more palpable everywhere.

But more, help me when I’m discouraged, when I think there’s no hope, when I give up on others and give up on myself, when I sense the dread of despair and apathy sneaking up on me. Raise me up, keep me going, use me for your work for justice and peace, and most of all, keep me faithful to the lifelong journey of justice and peace.

Let my entire life be a struggle for justice and peace, one long campaign for a new world of nonviolence. Let my life bear tremendous good fruit for others, and inspire others to join that struggle. Give me good cheer, a good heart, a sense of humor, a spirit of peace and love, and that revolutionary patience needed for the lifelong long-haul work of peacemaking.

Help me like the saints and prophets of old to live a full life in your service of justice and peace that I may join them one day in that place where the nonviolent revolution has come true and is permanent, that together, we might all praise you and your boundless peace.

Amen.

From Radical prayers on peace, love and nonviolence, by Fr. John Dear, 2017

• A prayer for nuclear disarmament, written by Sr. Diane Smith; prayer cards available in packs of 100 from the Pax Christi USA store.
• On August 6, join the 2025 Nuclear Prayer Day – use this link to learn more.