Starting a family in Italy is becoming a “titanical effort” that only the rich can afford, Pope Francis said Friday, warning that “wild” free-market conditions prevent young people from having children.
birth in Italy, it fell below 400,000 for the first time in 2022, recording its 14th consecutive annual decline, with the overall population falling by 179,000 to 58.85 million.
Speaking at a conference on the growing demographic crisis, Pope Francis said the declining birth rate signals an absence of hope for the future, and younger generations are burdened with feelings of insecurity, fragility and uncertainty.
“The problem of finding a gentle job, the difficulty of keeping it, prohibitive housing, sky-high rents and underwages are real problems,” he said, sitting next to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“A free market without the vital corrective measures goes wild and causes an increasing number of serious situations and inequalities,” he added.
The pope said that pets have replaced children in some homes and recounted how a girl in a recent audience opened a bag and asked for a papal blessing for “her child”, only to disclose it was a dog.
“I lost my patience and scolded her saying that many children are hungry and also you brought me a dog,” he said.
![Pope Francis has said that only rich people in Italy can afford to have children due to the growing demographic crisis.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/newspress-collage-27019515-1683880571652.jpg?1683866270&w=1024&1683866270)
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that young women faced with “almost insurmountable constraints” when forced to make a choice from profession and motherhood.
He added that given the high cost of raising children, individuals are shifting their priorities.
“We cannot passively accept that so many young people struggle to appreciate their family dream and are forced to lower the bar of desires, content with mediocre substitutes: earning money, pursuing a profession, traveling, jealously guarding their free time,” he said.
![Pope Francis attends a national demographic confrontation in Rome, Italy, May 12, 2023.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/05/2023-05-12T080803Z_101436859_RC2UW0AKB6EN_RTRMADP_3_ITALY-POPULATION-POPE.jpg?w=1024)
A shrinking population is a significant concern for the eurozone’s third-largest country, and the economy minister warned this week that Italy’s GDP could fall by 18 percentage points over the next twenty years if current birth rates proceed.
The education minister said on Thursday that current demographics suggest that in Italy school population it was projected to shrink by 1,000,000 over the next 10 years.