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Vatican COVID-19 commission urges nations to shift resources from conflict to human security

The Vatican Commission for COVID-19 has urged governments and the international community to prioritize resources that will address the global health and economic crises rather than devoting them to military expenditures.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the commission, said it is “time for nations of the world to shift from national security by military means to human security as the primary concern of policy and international relations.”

The prelate, who is the prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told a conference in the Vatican on July 7 that huge resources “are devoted to military expenditure” while the people “are being disproportionately affected by the present crisis.”




“Regrettably, instead of being united for the common good against a common threat that knows no borders, many leaders are deepening international and internal divisions,” said Cardinal Turkson.

The prelate stressed that the Church “strongly supports” programs of peacebuilding that “are essential for conflict and post-conflict communities to respond to COVID-19.”

He reaffirmed the Vatican’s support to the U.N. Security Council’s recent endorsement of a global cessation of hostilities.

The cardinal, however, that there is a difference between endorsing a cease-fire statement and implementing it.

People wearing protective face masks crossing a street in Taipei city, Taiwan during the new coronavirus pandemic June 30. (shutterstock.com photo)
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“We need to freeze weapons production and dealing,” said the prelate. “Without controlling arms, it is impossible to ensure security. Without security, the responses to the pandemic are not complete.”

The prelate said the “interconnected” health, socio-economics, and ecology crises have “widened the gap” between zones of peace, prosperity, and environmental justice.

“As the world takes emergency measures to address a global pandemic and a global economic recession… we must also consider the implications for peace of these interconnected crises,” he added.

Cardinal Turkson stressed that armed violence, conflict, and poverty “are indeed linked in a cycle that prevents peace, furthers human rights abuses, and hampers development.”




He said without peace and the reduction of conflicts, “there can be no healing,” and injustices and inequalities will continue to prevail.

The prelate called for global leadership that can “rebuild bonds of unity” and can set aside all forms of selfishness.

“Now is the time for the international community and the Church to develop bold and imaginative plans for collective action commensurate with the magnitude of this crisis,” he said.

“Now is the time to build a world that better reflects a truly integral approach to peace, human development, and ecology,” the prelate added.

SU-27 fighter planes at an airbase in the Almaty region, Kazakhstan. (shutterstock.com photo)

Dr. Alessio Pecorario, the coordinator of the Security Task-Force of the Vatican Commission, warned that the worst medical and economic impacts of the pandemic are “still to come.”

Despite these threats, Pecorario said nations are still spending a large number of resources on the military such as on new nuclear weapons programs, armed forces equipment, and small arms with exports into conflict regions.




In 2019, global military spending was US$ 1.9 trillion that was way higher than the annual military global expenditures during the Cold War and 300 times the budget of the World Health Organization.

Pecorario said resources needed for medical supplies, food security, and economic revival “can be diverted from the military sector in the context of renewed arms control.”

“Human and financial resources and technology should be used to create and stimulate strategies, alliances, and systems to protect lives and the planet and not to kill people and ecosystems,” said Pecorario.

An old woman cleaning food grain in a village in India. (shutterstock.com photo)

Sister Alessandra Smerilli, coordinator of the Economy Task-Force of the commission, said there are ways out of the looming economic and social crisis “but they require vision, courage, and international collaboration.”

“No state, just like its people, can do it alone as huge public investment in healthcare, ecological transition, retraining of workers and aid to companies are required,” she said.

Instead of doing the arms race, the nun said nations must “race towards food, health, and work security.”

“We are at a stage in which we must understand where to direct financial resources during this paradigm shift. Today, the first safety is that of health and well-being,” she said.

Sister Smerilli stressed that arms race “generates a vicious circle that never ends,” adding: “This type of race stops only with a collective will of self-limitation.”

“We need courageous leaders who can demonstrate that they believe in the common good, who are committed to guaranteeing what is most needed today,” she added.

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