Pope Francis has drawn criticism and comparisons to Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance after praising Indonesians for continuing to have large families.
The Pope is on a tour of Southeast Asia this week, stopping off at a cathedral in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Wednesday. Outgoing President Joko Widodo He addresses a crowd made up of nuns, priests and Catholic laypeople.
In 2020, the average number of children born per woman in the US was just 1.6, down from an average of 3.6 in the 1950s.
In his speech, Pope Francis praised Indonesians for having families with “three, four or even five children.” He called babies “the greatest wealth a nation can have” and criticized countries that effectively impose a “law of death” by restricting births.
The pope also lightheartedly asserted that Indonesia could be an “example” for other countries around the world, where “there are families who prefer to have cats and small dogs rather than children.”
While Francis did not name any specific countries that tacitly or overtly encourage pet ownership over child rearing, birth rates in Western countries have fallen sharply in recent decades. The United States, for example, averaged just 1.6 births per woman in 2020, down from an average of 3.6 in the 1950s. World Bank Reported.
Additionally, the survey found that 62 percent of Americans own at least one pet, and more than half of those pet owners consider their pets to be just as much a part of the family as people. Pew Research Poll It was published last year.
While the Pope is basing his judgment on data, his comments were nevertheless reminiscent of Senator Vance of Ohio's earlier “childless cat-loving women” comment.
In 2021, Vance, a Catholic, told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the United States was run by Democrats, big corporations and a “bunch of childless catty-cat women who are miserable about their lives and the choices they've made,” “so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” NPR.
In reporting the Pope's recent remarks, The Hill It ran an article titled “Pope Francis joins 'childless cat woman' debate, praises large Indonesian families.”
Other lesser known figures have made similar statements on social media. Daily Mail It was reported. X Search Indeed, some users have linked Pope Francis and Vance over their respective comments about children and cats, but X's posts on the subject have gone almost completely unnoticed, indicating little to no response from other users.
You can watch related videos of the Pope's speech in Jakarta below: here.
Wednesday was not the first time Pope Francis has spoken out against the falling birth rate. At a conference in Rome in May, He said“The house is full of stuff, the children are gone and it's a very sad place. There is no shortage of little dogs and cats. There is no shortage of these things. There is a shortage of children.”
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has also sounded the alarm about the falling birth rate. In April he said Tweeted “If birth rates continue to plummet, human civilization will come to an end.”
Reuters noted that while Indonesia's birth rate is higher than most Western countries, it is still declining.
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