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.
Pope Francis is stepping up his campaign to urge Italians 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 told an annual gathering of pro-family groups on Friday.
“Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future.”
Have the offering plates been a little light lately? Tithes not keeping up with the profit margins?
It’s rich that one of the wealthiest organizations in the world is telling tax-payer funded governments to loosen the purse strings.