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Since the debate about the morality of atomic weapons began in 1945, U.S. Protestants have led the way, in both mounting demonstrations and developing theology. The pastoral letter, which will be formally issued next May after further revision, is by far the strongest and most dramatic Christian challenge to the structure of U.S. nuclear strategy.
Moreover, the antinuclear crusade is a watershed for U.S. Catholicism. As a group, American bishops were almost jingoistic in their endorsements of U.S. foreign policy. Today dozens of the prelates are avowed pacifists. On nuclear morality and other social issues, says the Rev. Michael Campbell Johnson, Rome-based head of the Jesuits' Commission for Justice and Peace, the American bishops "may at last be slightly out in front of the [world] church as a whole." Some feel they may be too far out in front. New York's Terence Cardinal Cooke, 61, warned his colleagues last week that the nuclear issue has "great potential for seriously dividing our church and nation."
The pastoral letter was drafted by a committee of five bishops, whose views on nuclear strategy range from hawkish to openly pacifist. The chairman of that committee in many ways exemplifies the new spirit of American Catholicism. He is the Most Rev. Joseph Louis Bernardin, 54, Archbishop of Chicago (see box). As head of the nation's largest archdiocese (2.4 million members), Bernardin is expected to be added to the ten American Cardinals when Pope John Paul II names new members of the Sacred College. Bernardin has been a close colleague of the Pope's since they served together from 1974 to 1978 on the Vatican's international council for the Synod of Bishops.
Bernardin is greatly respected by his fellow American bishops, in part for his ability to work out compromises on controversial issues. Soft-spoken and mild-mannered, he has a knack of achieving his goals without causing commotion or rancor. Says a top Catholic clergyman, in admiration: "When Bernardin makes waves, they're always smooth waves."
The choice of Bernardin to chair the nuclear panel was made in 1980 by Archbishop John Roach of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 61, president of the U.S. bishops' conference since 1980. Says Bernardin of his delicate assignment: "We don't expect everyone to accept our conclusions, but we believe we must think this thing through to the end."
At the start of the debate, Cardinal Cooke, who is also military vicar to Catholics in the armed forces, called for stronger emphasis on the righteousness of "defense against unjust aggression," more realism about Communism and more reaction from bishops in other Western nations who are "anxious about their own defense." Another conservative, New Orleans Archbishop Philip Hannan, 69, argued that his colleagues should scrap the document entirely because it ignores the evils of Soviet Communism.
Hannan was followed by Seattle's Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, 61, an avowed pacifist who advocates unilateral U.S. disarmament. He is also risking