<em>New START has constrained the world’s largest nuclear arsenals since 2011.</em>
As the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) approaches its expiration on February 5, Pope Leo XIV and other Catholic leaders are urging policymakers to recommit to diplomacy and avert a renewed nuclear arms race.
At the end of the general audience on this February 4, Pope Leo said, "The current situation requires that everything possible be done to avert a new arms race that would further threaten peace among nations." He said that substituting a "logic of fear" is "more urgent than ever."
Tomorrow marks the expiry of the New START Treaty signed in 2010 by the Presidents of the United States and the Russian Federation, which represented a significant step in containing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In renewing my encouragement for every constructive effort in favour of disarmament and mutual trust, I urgently call for this instrument not to be abandoned without seeking to ensure its concrete and effective follow-up. The current situation requires that everything possible be done to avert a new arms race that would further threaten peace among nations. It is more urgent than ever to substitute the logic of fear and distrust with a shared ethos capable of guiding choices towards the common good and to make peace a treasure to be cherished by all.
The treaty, signed in 2010 by the United States and the Russian Federation, is the last remaining bilateral agreement limiting the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. Its lapse, Church leaders warn, would further destabilize an already fragile global security landscape.
In a statement released Tuesday, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the treaty’s expiration “simply unacceptable” amid ongoing global conflicts, including the war in Ukraine.
“The dangers posed by current conflicts around the world […] make the forthcoming expiration of New START simply unacceptable,” Archbishop Coakley said. He urged policymakers to “courageously pursue diplomatic negotiations to maintain New START’s limits, opening pathways toward disarmament.”
New START Treaty: At a Glance
Purpose: Limits U.S. and Russian deployed strategic nuclear weapons
Key caps: 1,550 deployed warheads; 700 deployed missiles and bombers
Verification: On-site inspections, data exchanges, and notifications
Current status: Extended through February 4, 2026; no successor yet agreed
New START places verifiable caps on deployed strategic nuclear weapons held by the United States and the Russian Federation, including limits on warheads, missiles, and heavy bombers. It also includes an extensive inspection and transparency regime designed to reduce mistrust and miscalculation.
Archbishop Coakley echoed recent appeals from Pope Leo XIV, who earlier this year warned diplomats of the danger of returning to an arms race fueled by increasingly sophisticated weapons, including those enhanced by artificial intelligence. The Pope himself emphasized the need for concrete follow-up to New START rather than allowing it to lapse without replacement.
In his message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Leo XIV also invoked St. John XXIII, recalling the late pontiff’s call for “integral disarmament.” True peace, the Pope noted, cannot rest on a balance of terror but on mutual trust among nations.
That moral framework remains central to the bishops’ advocacy. “International policy disagreements, as serious as they are, cannot be used as excuses for diplomatic stalemates,” Archbishop Coakley said. “On the contrary, they should spur us on to more vehemently pursue effective engagement and dialogue.”
Beyond policymakers, the archbishop also appealed directly to the faithful. He called on “people of faith and all men and women of good will” to pray for the courage needed to pursue what he described as “an authentic, transformative, and lasting peace.”
As New START’s expiration looms, the bishops’ message underscores a consistent theme in Catholic social teaching: peace is not secured by fear or force, but by sustained commitment to dialogue, restraint, and the common good.
