Is it OK to be a Catholic and believe in nuclear deterrence:

If you are a Catholic – and maybe even if you’re not – you’re probably pleased to hear that Andy Burnham is a Catholic who, apparently, takes his Catholicism seriously. He may not attend Mass every Sunday but as everyone except right-wing recidivist Catholics know, attending Mass every Sunday  says practically nothing about the quality of your faith.

That said, I worry for Andy on many fronts but on this one front in particular: the nuclear front.

Every British prime minister has to accept that Britain has a policy of nuclear deterrence; that is, it has nuclear weapons and it has to use these to dissuade any other country with nuclear weapons from trying anything sneaky. When I say ‘sneaky’, I mean of course from using a nuclelar weapon. And the only way Britain or any other nuclear ‘power’  can dissuade others is to be prepared if necessary to use their nuclear weapons.

So what would a nuclear explosion look like?

A blast wave would  destroy buildings, shatter windows, and throw people and debris over large distances.

There’d be intense heat, with a fireball reaching temperatures much hotter than the surface of the sun.

There’d be intense radiation which would kill people on the spot and/or release fatal doses, contaminating land and water. Long-term effects would be environmental damage, disruption of infrastructure and lasting health and economic  consequences.

So where in Catholic teaching is there a loophole that’d allow Andy to say Yes to such things? Where in Jesus’s teaching does he give the thumbs-up to that kind of button-pressing?