Bishop David Malloy, Chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and Peace, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, released a statement on July 14 expressing his disapproval of the United States' choice to send cluster munitions as assistance for the war in Ukraine. In his statement, Bishop Malloy strongly condemns this decision and reiterates his support for the United States to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty.

“Pope Francis has addressed the conventions on antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions, exhorting all countries to commit to these conventions ‘so that there are no more mine victims,’ Bishop Malloy wrote in his statement, according to a July 14 USCCB press release. “While recognizing Ukraine’s right to self-defense, we must continue to pray for dialogue and peace, and I join with our Holy Father in supporting and sharing in his moral concern and aspiration.” 

Bishop Malloy, Chairman of the USCCB's Committee on International Justice and Peace, and the Bishop of the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois, expressed disapproval of the United States' decision to provide cluster munitions as aid for the war in Ukraine. He strongly condemns this choice and emphasizes the importance of the United States signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty. The U.S., Ukraine, and Russia are among the few remaining countries that have not yet signed the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the "use, development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, and transfer of such munitions," according to the United Nations' Office for Disarmament Affairs.

“Over 100 countries, including the Holy See, have signed the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions banning their use, recognizing their indiscriminate nature and risk to civilian populations long after fighting has ceased," Bishop Malloy said in his statement. "But the United States and Russia have not signed the agreement. I, and my predecessors as chairmen of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, have long urged the U.S. government to sign on to both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Mine Ban Treaty."

The Associated Press reported that the United States' decision to send cluster munitions has sparked significant controversy, particularly among certain members of Congress who express concern over the potential harm to innocent civilians due to the munitions' reported high failure rate in detonation. However, the U.S. asserts that the percentage of unexploded munitions, known as duds, within the package will be less than 3%. The package, valued at up to $800 million, will be sourced from Pentagon stocks and will include ammunition as well as Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles, 

"Anti-personnel mines are underhand because they prolong war and foster fear even after the conflicts have ended," wrote His Holiness Pope Francis in a letter to the President of the Conference of Anti-Personnel Landmines in 2014. "To the human failure that war represents, they add a sense of fear which pervades the way of life and alters the building of peace. This feeling is destructive not only for the person subjected to it but also for the one who imposes it. Peace is the joy of life, faith in the day by day relationship of brotherhood, of gratuitousness, where the interests of all can be found only in sharing, in cooperation, and in the rejection of hate and indifference."

"All individuals, direct or indirect victims of landmines, are there to remind us every moment of this human failure and the emptiness that results from it," added Pope Francis in his letter. "Conventions such as that on anti-personnel mines or that on cluster munitions, are not only cold legal frameworks, but they represent a challenge for all those who are seeking to safeguard and build peace, and, in particular, to defend the weakest."