Jerry Zawada returned here today for a few days until he goes to Tacoma, Washington for his trial on crossing the line on the Trident Nuclear Navel base. Jerry is a Catholic Franciscan priest full of stories from his many years of opposing wars and nuclear weapons.

Last night on Public Television Travis Smiley interviewed Journalist Eric Schlosser who had just written a book Command and Control in which he examines the dangers of America’s nuclear age. It was scary hearing him talk about the near disastrous accidents in the USA over the years. However, when came to the present he said we were no longer building new nuclear bombs. President Obama has approved three new nuclear weapons facilities, one in Los Alamos, second one in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the third in Kansas City, Mo. Now these new nuclear bomb factories are replacing old ones, however, they are still building new nuclear bombs. Where these bombs will go is unknown at the present. I was surprised at this statement, no more nuclear bomb being built, by a reporter who was warning us of the danger of nuclear bombs. John Dear S.J., peace activist notes in the National Catholic online news of Feb. 10, 2010 “As Obama feeds the nuclear weapons industry with a $7 billion increase, he’ll go through the motions of hammering out a disarmament deal with Russia and of reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In that convoluted logic, so common to the holders of nuclear weapons, he thinks he can promote peace while adding billions for nuclear advances.”

One would hope that from the past, nuclear bombs destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the near accidents in the USA we would have learned that nuclear weapons does not bring peace but more nuclear weapons in more and more countries.

Thinking about this situation as well as why Marquette University continues to teach conditioned killing when all major religions condemn it, I, unfortunately, come to one conclusion: Money trumps morals. The same could be true for the Milwaukee Catholic archdiocese closing parishes in the poorest and most segregated neighborhoods of Milwaukee and then placing the money in an endowment fund rather than use it to serve the poor and marginalized. The god of money seems to be more important than the one and only God of our faiths.

We have been warned about putting money over our faith and values but yet we do it. I pray for the day when morals will trump money.

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