[The use of nuclear energy] has become a reality and had its application in the construction of the “atomic bomb” or “bomb of nuclear energy”: the most terrible weapon that the human mind has, to this date, devised.
Im this conjuncture, we cannot refrain from expressing a thought that constantly grieves our soul, as well as those with a true sense of humanity. In this regard, we are reminded of the words of St. Augustine in his work “De civitate Dei”, where he speaks of the horros of war, even just war: “Which evils – he writes – if I wanted to narrate, as befits, the many and multiple devastations, the harsh and cruel anguish, though this would be impossible for me as the subject would require, when would the end of the long dispute be reached?… Anyone who painfully considers these most horrible and dastardly evils, must confess their misery; but those who bear and think about them without anguish in their soul, and who think themselves happy, have lost their sense of humanity”. If the wars of yore already justified such severe sentences from the great Doctor, with what voices should we judge the present wars, striking our generations and resorting to works of destruction and extermination from more advanced techniques? What misfortunes can humanity expect from a future conflict, when it is shown that it is impossible to stop or slow down the use of ever new and even more surprising scientific inventions?
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Venerable Pope Pius XII
Speech to the Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
February 8, 1948
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