Francis says economy causes low birthrate

POPE FRANCIS has attributed the declining birthrate in Europe to the economic crisis as much as to the “culture of hedonism and selfishness”.

In a wide-ranging interview with an Italian newspaper, he acknowledged that many families are facing severe financial tests.

He told the Rome-based Il Messaggero: “Having a family is a challenge. Sometimes your pay packet doesn’t last till the end of the month. You worry about losing your job, not being able to pay the rent.”

In a marked departure from the views expressed in the instrumentum laboris, or working document for October’s Synod of Bishops, published by the Vatican last week, he said: “Italy and Spain have extremely low birth rates, France too. This is largely down to the economic crisis, not just the culture based on hedonism and selfishness. It’s as if Europe doesn’t want to be a mother any more and prefers to be grandma.”

The instrumentum laboris, the working document prepared from a survey of dioceses worldwide, blamed the decline in births on couples choosing to ignore church teachings, rather than the economic downturn.

But Pope Francis did acknowledge that couples today balked at the responsibility of having children. “People prefer having pets,” he said, because they are “easier” than children. “The emotional rapport with pets is more programmable than the relationship with children. An animal is not free but a child is very complex.”

The Pope also used the interview to brush off accusations that he is a Marxist. He has made a concern for the poor a pillar of his pontificate, but he claimed that communism “has stolen the banner of the poor [that] has always been Christianity”.