Well, if you look at what he actually said, he wasn’t necessarily encouraging “breeding” but also encouraging people to adopt and take care of children without parents, etc.
I’m pretty cynical about the Catholic Church (I’m Catholic), I’m a single, childless passionate pet mother, but I’m a big fan of Francis, and his remarks were taken out of context and sensationalized, imho. Shocking, I know, that in this day and age the media would take something and run with it….
It’s a homily. It’s religious and meant to be food for thought, how you might apply religious teachings to your own life. He’s specifically talking about Joseph, who adopted Jesus as his own, despite the social mores of the day (Mary, being pregnant while betrothed to Joseph, would have been seen as a dishonorable woman and Joseph could have legally dumped her, but he still married her and adopted Jesus. (No need to believe to story, but this is where Francis is coming from).
Francis is not bashing pet ownership, he’s encouraging us to be open to loving children, whether our own or adopted, to take the risk. As a single, childless woman, with pets, I do get his point, whether from a religious perspective, a societal perspective, or even a biological perspective.
Francis:
“We should not be afraid to choose the path of adoption, to take the “risk” of welcoming children. And today, with orphanhood, there is a certain selfishness. The other day, I spoke about the demographic winter there is nowadays, in which we see that people do not want to have children, or just one and no more. And many, many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one – but they have two dogs, two cats… Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children. Yes, it’s funny, I understand, but it is the reality.
And this denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity. And in this way civilization becomes aged and without humanity, because it loses the richness of fatherhood and motherhood. And our homeland suffers, as it does not have children, and, as it has been said somewhat humorously, “and now who will pay the taxes for my pension, if there are no children?”: with laughter, but it is the truth. Who will take care of me?
I ask of Saint Joseph the grace to awaken consciences and to think about this: about having children. Fatherhood and motherhood are the fullness of the life of a person. Think about this. It is true, there is the spiritual fatherhood of those who consecrated themselves to God, and spiritual motherhood; but those who live in the world and get married, think about having children, of giving life, which they will take from you for the future.
And also, if you cannot have children, think about adoption. It is a risk, yes: having a child is always a risk, either naturally or by adoption. But it is riskier not to have them. It is riskier to deny fatherhood, or to deny motherhood, be it real or spiritual. But denial, a man or woman who do not develop the sense of fatherhood or motherhood, they are lacking something, something fundamental, something important. Think about this, please.”