WASHINGTON (March 1, 1999) -- In a statement welcoming the taking effect (March 1) of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick urged the United States to join the 134 other nations that have already signed the treaty.

"We also pledge to continue our longstanding efforts to encourage the United States to adopt the treaty through the Catholic Campaign to Ban Landmines, and we repeat our thanks to all those who have helped in these efforts," the Archbishop said.

Archbishop McCarrick is Chairman of the International Policy Committee of the United States Catholic Conference (USCC).

"Even those the United States is not responsible for the indiscriminate use of landmines throughout the world, the terrible human cost of these insidious weapons should compel us to help ban them, not resist or delay work toward this urgent moral imperative," Archbishop McCarrick said. "The Mine Ban Treaty offers the world the best opportunity it now has to make progress in stopping the killing and maiming of civilians around the world," he continued. "That is why, like so many others, Pope John Paul II has called on all nations to adhere to the treaty, so that 'there be no delay in freeing huge numbers of men, women and children from these destructive instruments insidiously placed under their feet'. Without the United States, this noble effort to achieve an effective global ban will be seriously undermined."


Text of Archbishop McCarrick's statement.

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