Image: Pope Leo XIV ordains a group of 10 priests at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica as the Church celebrated the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on April 26, 2026, in Vatican City. As he prayed the Regina Caeli in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV called for the responsible use of nuclear energy. His appeal came on the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which he said “marked the conscience of humanity.”Mario Tomassetti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images

Jon Letman of Truthout reports: “Eighty-one years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear landscape is dire. Experts say arms control is on “life support,” if not dead, while diplomacy and negotiations are overrun by conflict and confrontation. In February, the expiration of the New START Treaty marked the end of more than five decades of U.S.-Russian (Soviet) arms-control treaties.

Spending on nuclear weapons continues to rise sharply, growing by nearly 20 percent last year as nuclear arsenals are modernized and expanded. In May, for the third time in 16 years, negotiations over the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) failed to reach a consensus document, with one of the three central objectives of the treaty — nuclear disarmament — a distant and elusive dream…”

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