The French Bishops’ Bomb

The Roman Catholic bishops of France took a dramatic stand in the debate over nuclear deterrence early in November, as the first cruise missiles and Pershings arrived in Europe and pacifist agitation there reached a peak. Their statement came as quite a bombshell.

Last spring the U.S. bishops issued their pastoral on nuclear warfare in what has become typical American fashion for public pronouncements: It followed many months of public agonizing, interviews, leaked drafts, revisions, statements, and counterstatements. The final version was in many ways an improvement on the initial drafts [see Michael Novak’s “Moral Clarity in the Nuclear Age,” NR, April 1, 1983, and “The Bishops Speak Out,” NR, June 10, 1983], but politically it was and continues to be an embarrassment to President Reagan and U.S. policymakers. The pacifists, the disarmers, and the unilateralists praised the bishops for bringing the Roman Catholic Church in America into their camp on this issue.

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Thomas Molnar

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The Roman Catholic bishops of France took a dramatic stand in the debate over nuclear deterrence early in November, as the first cruise missiles and Pershings arrived in Europe and pacifist agitation there reached a peak. Their statement came as quite a bombshell.

Last spring the U.S. bishops issued their pastoral on nuclear warfare in what has become typical American fashion for public pronouncements: It followed many months of public agonizing, interviews, leaked drafts, revisions, statements, and counterstatements. The final version was in many ways an improvement on the initial drafts [see Michael Novak’s “Moral Clarity in the Nuclear Age,” NR, April 1, 1983, and “The Bishops Speak Out,” NR, June 10, 1983], but politically it was and continues to be an embarrassment to President Reagan and U.S. policymakers. The pacifists, the disarmers, and the unilateralists praised the bishops for bringing the Roman Catholic Church in America into their camp on this issue.