Speaking at a conference in Rome on the ever-shrinking birth rate in Italy, Pope Francis highlighted “the urgent need for joint efforts to support families to address the demographic crisis, warning that ‘savage’ free-market conditions are preventing young people from having children.” He said “parents, and especially women, need more support and security if countries such as Italy were to reverse the course of the “demographic winter.”
He said birth rate is crucial for the future of our societies. “Indeed, the birth of children is the main indicator for measuring the hope of a people. If few are born, it means that there is little hope.” Italy’s birth rate has been shrinking for years, and in 2022 hit a new historic low.
POPE ON LOW BIRTH RATES: THE FAMILY IS NOT PART OF THE PROBLEM, BUT PART OF ITS SOLUTION
This week, for the first time in public, we saw Pope Francis use a walker because of his ongoing mobility issues. In fact, Friday morning, he began his address to the General States of Birth conference by saying, off the cuff, “Pardon me for not speaking to you while standing but I can’t tolerate the pain when I stand.”
He then thanked organizers for the invitation to speak “because I believe that the theme of the birth rate is central for everyone, especially for the future of Italy and Europe.”
Part of his opening remarks were made off the cuff, including the stories he told about “two pictures” of moments in St. Peter’s Square, moments when people asked for a blessing, not for the child brought to the square in a small carriage, but for their dogs!
“I would like to give you just two ‘pictures’ that took place here in [St. Peter’s] Square,” began the Holy Father. “Two weeks ago, my secretary was in the square and a mother with a carriage was passing by. He, a tender priest, approached to bless the child… but instead, inside was a dog! And, two weeks ago at the Wednesday audience, as I was greeting people, I was in front of a lady, more or less 50 years old. I greeted her and she opened a large bag and says: ‘Please bless my baby’: a little dog! At that moment I lost patience and scolded the lady: ‘Madam, many children are hungry, and you have a dog!’ Brothers and sisters, these are scenes from the present, but if this is how things go, this will be the habit of the future, we’ll have to be careful!”
Pope Francis went on to say, “The birth of children, in fact, is the main indicator for measuring the hope of a people. If few are born it means that there is little hope. And this doesn’t just have repercussions from the point of view economic and social, but undermines confidence in the future. I learned that last year Italy touched the historic minimum of births: just 393,000 newborns. It is a fact that reveals a great deal of concern for tomorrow. Today, bringing children into the world is perceived as a burden on families. And this, unfortunately, conditions the mentality of the younger generations who grow up in uncertainty, if not in disillusionment and fear. They live in a social climate in which creating a family has turned into a titanic effort, instead of being a shared value that everyone recognizes and supports.”
More than anything, Francis stressed that “the family is not part of the problem, but part of its solution!”
For more of his talk this morning: Pope: The family is the future of society – Vatican News
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