World

Pope Francis Says There Is ‘Little Hope’ If Countries Don’t Adopt Policies Encouraging People To Have Children

(Photo by VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Kate Anderson Contributor
Font Size:

Pope Francis lamented the declining birth rate in many countries Friday and pushed for “forward-looking policies” to encourage people to start having families, according to Vatican News.

The pope was attending the third “General States of Births” meeting in Rome on Friday to discuss the current “demographic winter” that plagues Italy and many Western nations, according to Vatican News. Francis suggested to the audience that countries should promote policies that encourage people to pro-create or there is “little hope” they won’t simply settle “for mediocre substitutes.” (RELATED: Pope Francis Compares Abortion Doctors To Hitmen In New Disney+ Special)

“We cannot passively accept that so many young people struggle to realize their family dream and are forced to lower the bar of desire, settling for mediocre substitutes: making money, aiming for a career, traveling, jealously guarding leisure time,” the pope said, according to Vatican News. “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”.

UNDISCLOSED, GERMANY - AUGUST 12: An empty baby bed, which has been placed under a window by the photographer, stands in the maternity ward of a hospital (a spokesperson for the hospital asked that the hospital not be named) on August 12, 2011 in a city in the east German state of Brandenburg, Germany.

UNDISCLOSED, GERMANY – AUGUST 12: An empty baby bed, which has been placed under a window by the photographer, stands in the maternity ward of a hospital (a spokesperson for the hospital asked that the hospital not be named) on August 12, 2011, in a city in the east German state of Brandenburg, Germany. [Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]

Many countries experienced a significant drop in birth rates during the COVID-19 pandemic before slowly bouncing back. However, many countries such as China, the U.S.,  Japan and Italy are experiencing a shrinking birth rate, with Italy’s population dropping by 179,000.

Francis said that part of the problem is people live in a society where starting a family is a “titanic effort” and the “almost insurmountable constraints” placed on women to try and have a career and a family, according to Vatican News. He also suggested that countries be more welcoming to immigrants, saying that a “happy community naturally develops the desire to generate and integrate.”

The pope has been outspoken on this issue in the past, saying that choosing to have pets over children is a form of “selfishness,” and he encouraged young couples to consider adoptions even if they cannot have children themselves.

The Vatican did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel