Archbishop John Wester agrees with Trump on nuclear weapons
John Lavenburg/Crux• March 7, 2025
A US archbishop and leading Catholic voice on nuclear disarmament has said he shares the US president’s concerns over nuclear proliferation. His comments come as the third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons takes place at the United Nations headquarters in New York this week.
The nuclear states – countries with nuclear weapons – are headed by the United States and Russia, who each have more than 5,000 nuclear warheads. China is a distant third with just north of 400 nuclear warheads.
Recently, President Donald Trump said he wants to hold denuclearisation talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping of China, explaining that “there’s no need for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many”.
Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe has commented that he is aware of Trump’s statement and that he hopes the sentiment from the US president is sincere.
“There isn’t a lot I agree with President Trump on, but I do agree with him on that,” Archbishop Wester said.
“I don’t know what his motivation is, but as long as the end result would be reducing nuclear weapons, I’m happy; that’s great…I just hope he’s doing it for the right reasons because it’s going to need the right reasons to be persuasive to the other countries.”
Speaking to Crux after celebrating a Mass for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan on March 4, Wester highlighted that in order for the treaty to have any “teeth”, the nuclear states have to get onboard.
“The countries without nuclear weapons can sign it, and that’s good because they’re committing not to ever develop nuclear weapons,” the archbishop said. “But we have to get the countries that have them to get rid of them, and that’s a tough deal, of course, but we have to keep working for it.
“You have to get the nuclear states to sign this treaty for it to have any real impact.”
The Mass for the abolition of nuclear weapons was organised as a side event to the UN meeting running from 3 – 7 March in New York. Earlier in the day on March 4, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, addressed the UN meeting, telling those in attendance that “it is the collective responsibility of the international community to ensure that the atrocities of the past are not repeated”.
Caccia said that geopolitical divisions and tensions around the world have created a troubling situation.
“This growing sense of mistrust and fear is having a detrimental effect on international relations, with the result that the disarmament architecture is being severely undermined, while military expenditures are rising dramatically,” Caccia said.
“Too many states are increasingly redirecting valuable resources towards military stockpiling, funds that could instead be used to tackle urgent global challenges, including poverty and hunger. This shift in priorities is deeply concerning, as it diverts attention from the fundamental need for human integral development and peace.”
Following the fallout from the recent tense meeting at the White House between leaders of the US and Ukraine, which has included the US government announcing plans to halt military aid to Ukraine, EU leaders have gone in the opposite direction by proposing plans to assist Ukraine and significantly ramp up military spending across European nations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 4 March proposed a new common strategy to increase military spending throughout the EU, suggesting that member states pool up to €150 billion ($157.7 billion) in loans as part of a five-stage plan to increase defence spending.
Speaking to reporters, she also presented a “Rearm Europe” plan to ultimately unlock up to €800 billion ($841.4 billion) of additional defence spending over the next several years.
RELATED: EU bishops rally behind Ukraine after explosive Trump meeting
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons includes a set of prohibitions on participating in any nuclear weapons activities such as developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, and, of course, using nuclear weapons.
It has been signed by 94 countries and ratified by 73 state parties since it was adopted in 2017. It went into effect in 2021, though it remains unsigned by the key countries holding nuclear weapons. In addition to the United States, Russia and China not signing the treaty, other nuclear states that haven’t signed on include Great Britain, France, India and Pakistan.
The Holy See was the first to sign the treaty. While a symbolic gesture in terms of the treaty’s protocols, Wester said the Church continues to have a crucial voice on the issue of nuclear weapons as a moral authority in society.
“I think the Church has a lot of influence to sway hearts.” Wester said. “The Church has power not just because of the Pope and the magisterium, but also because of the people.
“The Church is the people, and people have a voice, and they have a right and responsibility to speak out against nuclear weapons.
“Sometimes people say it should be left to the leaders. Well, we tried that. It didn’t work, and so we’ve got to have people speaking out.”
RELATED: Holy See deeply concerned over increase in rhetoric and threats around nuclear weapons
Photo collage: (left) US President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA, 4 March 2025 (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) / (right) Archbishop John Wester of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe (photo from advocacydays.org).