States should divert money spent on equipment to invest in education, Pope Francis said in his annual message for peace, stigmatizing rising military spending to the detriment of social services.
In his message today for the World Catholic Church’s World Peace Day, which is celebrated on January 1, Francis also called for a better balance between a free market economy and the need to help those in need and to protect the environment. .
He has devoted about a third of his four-page message to education, saying there has been a “significant reduction” in spending on education and training worldwide, as military spending rises beyond the end of the Cold War and “seems certain.” that they will increase to an outrageous degree “.
He did not cite any sources for the statistics.
“It’s time, then, for governments to develop development policies aimed at reversing the amount of public money spent on education and armaments,” Pope Francis said in a message sent to heads of state and international leaders.
“Pursuing a genuine process of international disarmament can only be beneficial for the development of peoples and states, freeing up financial resources to be better used for health care, schools, infrastructure, land care and so on. “, he said.
Rates of military and training expenditures vary from country to country, but views on what should be increased and what should be reduced are partisan.
Francis has called for disarmament, a ban on nuclear weapons, and said military spending should also be diverted to the fair distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 and to research into preventing future pandemics.
“Despite the numerous efforts aimed at constructive dialogue between states, the deafening noise of war and conflict is intensifying. “As pandemic diseases spread, the effects of climate change and environmental degradation worsen, and the tragedy of hunger and thirst increases,” he said in a statement.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
