The Storm of a Lifetime: A Report to U.S. Catholic Bishops and Pope Francis

This report explores the facts surrounding the Vatican’s Apostolic Visitation to the Archdiocese of Seattle in late 1983, following Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen’s effective advocacy of non-violent opposition to nuclear weapons, especially the basing of Trident nuclear missile-carrying submarines at Bangor, Washington, on the Hood Canal in Puget Sound. This report includes information from interviews of persons who were involved, research from archives at Georgetown University, Marquette University, University of Texas and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as well as results of Freedom of Information/Privacy Act requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Investigative Service. Appendices present the full text of Archbishop Hunthausen’s speech to the Pacific Lutheran Convention in Tacoma, Washington, full text of U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s last speech, given in New York City to the Catholic Knights of Malta, full text of U.S. Secretary of Navy John F. Lehman’s speech condemning non-violent resistance to nuclear weaponry, full text of U.S. President Harry Truman’s speech dedicating the Temple of the Four Chaplains, full text of the FBI’s Special Investigation of Trident Program procurement czar World War II Ace fighter pilot Melvyn R. Paisley, and full text of the obituary of Archbishop Jean Jadot, the Belgian prelate responsible for helping Pope Paul VI choose most of the members of the U.s. Catholic hierarchy, including Hunthausen, responsible for writing the U.S. Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on War and Peace. Under great pressure the U.S. Bishops refused to permit deterrence as a sufficiently moral reason for building nuclear weapons, unless the numbers of those weapons are being reduced.