Of Popes and Pets

[Catherine]

Quote:In the current ecological crisis, I think that people choosing to take in homeless companion animals, and not having children, are doing the right thing. They are acting responsibly. IMHO, the current Pope is wrong, simply wrong.

You are definitely right. The pope is wrong on so many levels.

He is being very judgmental about couples who are not having  children or not having many children.
I have known couples who wanted children very much, but were not able to conceive. I have known couples who had one child and were not able to conceive another child. These  Catholic couples felt like failures and they suffered terrible guilt. 
 The truth is that human fertility is declining. 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...ming-rate/

Accusing people of selfishness without knowing why they are not having children is cruel. The Catholic Church does not allow the use of reproductive technologies, so infertile Catholic couples have no options. They just can't have children. To call them selfish is heartless.

Also, the Church holds up celibacy and therefore childlessness as a higher calling. 
For the pope not to have children is a virtue, but for some couple not to have children is considered selfish. What he is saying is hypocritical.

Pets and children are not an either or choice. Many people have both. Many people with pets go on to have children. Many people who are past child bearing age have pets. Many children who were raised with pets grow up to have children and pets.

Some people are choosing not to have children. The world is dangerously over populated. We cannot go on the way we are because we are depleting the world's resources. That is not a selfish choice. 
Some people live in situations that make it better not to have children. They are not being selfish either.
Some people are not well enough to have children or they know they will not have healthy children. It is a difficult choice, but it is not a selfish one.
Sometimes people do not have to resources  to care for more than one or two children. Having many children they cannot properly look after seems irresponsible. Limiting yourself to the number of children you can care for is not selfish.

If we can find comfort with our pets in all these circumstances it, is a good thing.
We do not need some childless, pet-less old man to tell us we are wrong.
He is wrong.