Pope Scolds Couples Who Choose Pets Over Kids

"ROME — Pope Francis has not been reluctant to offer his views on polarizing subjects, but on Wednesday, he waded into an issue involving two subjects on which consensus is almost impossible to find.

Pets and kids.

Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday, Francis bemoaned the global decline in birthrates — what he described as a “demographic winter” — and was bluntly critical of couples who prefer to have pets rather than children.

People who have pets instead of children, the pope said, were being selfish, exhibiting a “denial of fatherhood or motherhood” that “diminishes us, it takes away our humanity.”

“Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children,” Francis said, laying out the harsh consequences of a childless future, including the inevitable drying up of pension plans. “Yes, it’s funny, I understand, but it is the reality.”

The pope had already signaled his kids-over-kibbles stance in a 2014 interview with the Rome daily Il Messaggero. When asked whether some in society valued pets more than children, he said that it was a reality that reflected a “sign of cultural degeneration.”

“That’s because an emotional relationship with animals is easier, more programmable,” he said at the time. He added, “Having a child is something complex.”

 

Francis, too, has demonstrated that he respects and cares for animals.

In his 2015 encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’,” or “Praise Be to You. On Care for Our Common Home,” for example, he repeatedly pointed to interconnectedness of humans and all creatures.

“Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another,” Francis wrote.

And during his papacy, he’s petted a number of animals, mostly dogs.

On Wednesday, Francis said the world was experiencing “an age of notorious orphanhood” that could be countered, in part, by caring for children, either through adoption or naturally. “It is riskier not to have them,” Francis said. “Think about this, please.”"