On March 21, Pope Francis received members of Ho avuto sete (I was thirsty), a volunteer organization based in Modena, Italy, that helps provide drinking water to those who lack it.

After praising the organization’s members for their work, the Pope asked, “Why, then, wage war on each other over conflicts that we should resolve by talking to each other as fellow people? Why not rather join our forces and resources to fight together the real battles of civilization: the fight against hunger and thirst; the fight against disease and epidemics; the fight against poverty and slavery of today. Why?”

He continued, “Certain choices are not neutral: to allocate a large part of spending to weapons means taking it away from something else, which means continuing to take it away from those who lack the necessities.”