Pope Francis said in his annual message for peace on Tuesday that countries should fund and promote education instead of buying weapons, Reuters reports.
The pope said military spending has gone beyond levels seen during the Cold War while funding for education and training has fallen worldwide.
“It is high time, then, that governments develop economic policies aimed at inverting the proportion of public funds spent on education and on weaponry,” Francis said.
“The pursuit of a genuine process of international disarmament can only prove beneficial for the development of peoples and nations, freeing up financial resources better used for health care, schools, infrastructure, care of the land and so forth,” he added.
Francis also reportedly said that there should be a better balance struck between a free market economy and resources that need to be used to aid the poor and protect the environment.
Francis has previously called for a ban on nuclear weapons and said that he would like to see military funds redirected toward additional expenditures on COVID-19 vaccines and more widespread access to them worldwide, Reuters noted.
The news service added that a 2019 Pew Research Center poll showed that 84 percent of Democrats in the U.S. wanted more education spending while 56 percent of Republicans wanted more military spending.
On Sunday, Francis also said that domestic violence was a major concern, calling it “almost satanic” and “humiliating.”