Pope Francis has urged parents to have fewer children. In a bid to prevent overpopulation to make the world more sustainable, the pontiff apparently told a Vatican panel that moms and dads should only have more kids if they can raise them properly.
Botanist and environmentalist Peter Raven of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences revealed Pope Francis' statements in a press conference following a Biological Extinction workshop at the Vatican. Raven said although the Church is not endorsing any forms of artificial birth control, the pope want to emphasize on the repercussions of overpopulation to the Earth, especially if the children are not raised well.
"We need a more limited number of people in the world," Raven said, per Lifesite News. Apart from the lack of resources, the problem with overpopulation is that it breeds other social injustices like inequality as resources are almost always available for the rich and not the poor.
The Biological Extinction panel also tackled a paper written by Dr. Paul Ehrlich, an abortion advocate. He cited the failure of the Catholic Church to curb population growth because of its strict stance against artificial birth control and abortion. Elrich and his co-author, economics professor Partha Dasgupta, also underscored that education of families about overpopulation is crucial.
Last year, the pope told a group of media people that both acts of using birth control and having an abortion to prevent pregnancy are "absolutely evil," according to Daily Mail. The pope, however, clarified that avoiding pregnancy is not wrong but couples should abide by the teachings of the Church.
Catholics can only use natural birth control or natural family planning method, wherein a woman has to be aware of the most fertile days in her reproductive cycle. If she and her husband want to avoid a pregnancy, they should not have intercourse during these fertile days. The Church said that this method is 100 percent effective, according to Beginning Catholic.
