Pope Francis wants couples to raise human children, not dogs

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last updated 8 January 2015

Pope Francis, life coach: At a mass on Monday attended by 15 long-married couples (25 to 60 years), the pope talked a lot about love and Jesus and perseverance and marriage, but he also dropped this warning about ignoring "fruitfulness," according to Vatican Radio:

These marriages, in which the spouses do not want children, in which the spouses want to remain without fertility. This culture of well-being from 10 years ago convinced us: It’s better not to have children! It’s better! You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be carefree... it might be better — more comfortable — to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the dog. Is this true or is this not? Have you seen it? Then, in the end this marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness. [Pope Francis, via Vatican Radio]

"In other words," summarizes Time's Maya Rhodan, "all the effort you spend caring for your furry friends would be of better use if Fido or Fifi were children." It's an interesting marriage of the Catholic Church's admonition for married couples to procreate and its counsel on the self-defeating emptiness of materialism. That said, sounding like a TV mother may not win Pope Francis any friends among purposefully childless couples who adore their dogs — if that was ever fertile ground. Here's the report from Vatican Radio. --Peter Weber