Review Essay: Receiving Pope Francis’s Condemnation of Nuclear Weapons

Pope Francis issued the first papal condemnation of the possession of nuclear weapons.Speaking to an international symposium at the Vatican titled "Prospect for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons and for Integral Disarmament," Francis stated of nuclear weapons that "the threat of their use, as well as their very possession, is to be firmly condemned."Previous popes had condemned the use of nuclear weapons but not their possession as a deterrent, which involves a threat to use them if attacked.Earlier in 2017, the Vatican had taken part in a conference at the United Nations that produced the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, of which it was one of the first signatories.One of the members of the Vatican's delegation was Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, a specialist in social ethics with a particular expertise in the ethics of nuclear weapons.After the November