69 years ago today the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, killing 120,000 people on impact, most of them civilians. Many thousands more died of cancer, radiation sickness and burns caused by the blasts. The Catholic Church teaches that the ends do not justify the means, and that it is immoral to intentionally kill civilian non-combatants, women and children, even in the context of a “just war”. In the Vatican II document Gaudium et spes the Church puts it this way, “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or of extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.” Nuclear weapons and carpeting bombing cities are crimes against God and man. So why do so many Catholics think otherwise? Tony Magliano has the story in NCR: Nuclear Weapons a Crime Against God and Humanity