Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians)

In October of 2024, approximately 90 people from throughout Canada and the United States cam to Olive Branch, MS (just south of Memphis),  to discuss two seemingly diverse themes: climate change and nuclear weapons. Hosted by the Priests of the Sacred Heart (Dehonians), the “Dehonian Conference on the Dual Threats of Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons,” featured presentations by Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe and Sr. Kathleen Storms, SSND. Participants included Dehonian priests and brothers, coworkers, parishioners, students, seminarians and others with a connection to the religious order.

“Hope” may seem an unlikely concept in the midst of presentations on the threats of climate change and nuclear weapons, but it was a word used repeatedly by both of the conference’s presenters.

“Our hope is in Jesus,” said Archbishop John Wester. “We must be people of hope that believe that God will work in us and through us… As Christians, how is the Lord calling me to be an instrument of peace in nuclear disarmament?”

One of the challenges of any conference is turning it into something more than just an isolated moment in time. In small and large-group discussions, participants identified “next steps” to be taken personally and locally to better care “for our common home.” This guide is one small step in that process. 

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, some of whose members worked on the Manhattan Project which created the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 "The Doomsday Clock is a design that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. It is a metaphor, a reminder of the perils we must address if we are to survive on the planet.

When the Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, the greatest danger to humanity came from nuclear weapons, in particular from the prospect that the United States and the Soviet Union were headed for a nuclear arms race. The Bulletin considered possible catastrophic disruptions from climate change in its hand-setting deliberations for the first time in 2007."

Nuclear risks are discussed here.