Dear Editor:

I was pleased to see that Friday’s “Our Opinion” addressed the statements, made by Pope Francis, during his visit to Japan, on the nuclear weapons threat we all live under. My take away on his comments is different than yours however. You brush him off as a naive idealist. I see him as a courageous leader sounding a warning.

None other than former US Secretary of Defense William Perry has stated that the proliferation of nuclear weapons is the Greatest Threat we face today.

I would not consider Secretary Perry naive or lacking understanding.

Indeed having been involved in national security decisions at the highest level, he knows all too well the existential crisis mankind is up against.

I am sure that Francis is aware of the horrors of conventional warfare. The question is are we aware that today’s nuclear weapons are much more powerful. The bombs detonated in Japan destroyed cities, today’s thermonuclear weapons are capable of destroying civilization.

Our greatest enemy is passivity, defeatism, distraction, indifference and the primal human fear of thinking the unthinkable. Former Strategic Air Command General George Lee Butler has stated that humanity has escaped “a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck, and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greater proportion.”

This is a spiritual crisis. These weapons have become idols in which we have put our faith.

They can not save us. We are being deceived. I see Pope Francis, Secretary Perry and others who are sounding the alarm as prophets. We would do well to listen to them.

We must have hope and we must act to rid the world of these weapons.

A good place to start is with The Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a project initiated by Secretary Perry. Please go to www.wjperryproject.org to find out how you can get involved.

Sincerely,

Neil Himber,

Youngsville