Francis urged Italians on May 10 to have children, calling for long-term policies to help families and warning that the country’s demographic crisis was threatening the future.
“The number of births is the first indicator of the hope of a people,” Francis said at an annual gathering of pro-family groups. “Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future.”
Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year with 379,000 babies born.
In 2015, Francis said that Catholics shouldn’t “breed like rabbits”. He claimed that “responsible parenthood” requires the spouses to regulate the births of their children.
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