The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs: Sneak Preview
February 25 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Join us a for a screening of the exciting new documentary, The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs, about the struggle of nonviolent activists like Sr. Megan Rice and her colleagues to challenge the nuclear weapons establishment. The filmmaker, Helen Young, as well as Sr. Megan, will be on hand to introduce the film and answer questions.
In July 2012 three intruders broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, known as America’s “Fort Knox of Uranium”. Y-12 stores enough highly enriched uranium to make some 10,000 nuclear bombs. The break-in, described by The New York Times, as the most serious security breach in the history of the U.S. atomic complex, sent shock waves throughout the federal government, when it turned out the intruders were an 82-year-old Catholic nun and two fellow peace activists. The trio succeeded in penetrating the heart of America’s nuclear stockpile through the sheer power of their moral conviction and a pair of bolt cutters. Theirs was a Plowshares protest designed to raise public consciousness on the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons.
More than 25 years after the end of the Cold War, nuclear weapons are, once again, at the center of world attention. Deteriorating relations between the U.S. and Russia; the uncertain future of the Iran nuclear deal; the ongoing provocations by North Korea; have all ratcheted up the tensions surrounding the world’s 15,000 nuclear weapons.
While recent world events have captured the public’s attention, for disarmament activists the struggle for a
bolition has never stopped. This film profiles the people on the frontlines of this movement. Since 1980, activists in lay and religious life have undertaken dramatic Plowshares protests, risking long prison terms, and even death in an ongoing campaign to move the world away from the nuclear brink. Plowshares is derived from an injunction in the Bible, “They Shall Beat Their Swords into Plowshares”.
bolition has never stopped. This film profiles the people on the frontlines of this movement. Since 1980, activists in lay and religious life have undertaken dramatic Plowshares protests, risking long prison terms, and even death in an ongoing campaign to move the world away from the nuclear brink. Plowshares is derived from an injunction in the Bible, “They Shall Beat Their Swords into Plowshares”.
The break-in at Y-12 by Sister Megan Rice and two others was inspired by a Plowshares action at a U.S. naval base near Seattle less than three years earlier. The naval base houses the largest stockpile of active nuclear warheads in the country. Five activists, including a Catholic nun and two Jesuit priests, intruded onto the base reaching the nuclear warhead bunkers. The film follows the two federal criminal cases triggered by both incidents. It traces the activists’ legal efforts to justify their actions under international law.
The film also follows diplomatic efforts at the United Nations in 2015 to effect implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), signed by the U.S. and four other nuclear-armed states more than 45 years ago. The NPT signatories pledged to abolish their nuclear weapons, a promise that remains unfulfilled. Last year, because of the lack of progress on the NPT, a majority of nations voted to begin negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Talks are set to begin at the U. N. in 2017. This new diplomatic initiative increases the relevance of this film.
The film runs 106 minutes.
"Not one step back"
Cole Harrison
Executive Director
Massachusetts Peace Action - the Commonwealth's largest grassroots peace organization
11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169 w
617-466-9274 m
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