The “most controversial Catholic priest of his generation”, Bruce Kent, who has died aged 92, became general secretary of CND in early 1980, at a time when the group was “virtually moribund” with just 3,000 members, said The Guardian. A few months later, the government announced that Polaris would be replaced by Trident, and that US cruise missiles were going to be hosted at Greenham Common. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was revived, and by November, Kent was addressing 80,000 supporters in Trafalgar Square. To the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, he was a serious irritant; some of his critics regarded him as a “useful idiot”, inadvertently doing the Soviet Union’s dirty work. But to his many admirers, Kent was a charismatic, principled man whose actions were a potent reminder that…
