(USA TODAY) – Less than a month after sparking controversy for saying Catholics don’t have to multiply “like rabbits,” Pope Francis decided to praise big families, telling a gathering in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 11 that having more children is not “an irresponsible choice.”
He also said that choosing not to have children at all is “a selfish choice.”
A society that “views children above all as a worry, a burden, a risk, is a depressed society,” Francis said.
Citing European countries where the birth rate is especially low, the pope said, “They are depressed societies because they don’t want children. They don’t have children. The birth rate doesn’t even reach one percent.”
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