The Daily Populous Saturday May 11st, 2024 night edition
Authored by euronews.com and submitted by mancinedinburgh

Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year.

Pope Francis is stepping up his campaign to urge Italians to have children, calling for long-term policies to help families and warning that the country’s demographic crisis was threatening the future.

“The number of births is the first indicator of the hope of a people,” Francis told an annual gathering of pro-family groups on Friday.

“Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future.”

Italy’s birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has been falling steadily for about 15 years and reached a record low last year with just 379,000 babies born.

With the Vatican’s strong backing, the right-wing government led by Giorgia Meloni has mounted a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033, reaching a rate that experts say is necessary to prevent the economy from collapsing under the weight of an ageing population.

Francis called for long-term political strategies and policies to encourage couples to have children, including an end to precarious work contracts and impediments to buying homes, as well as ensuring that women aren't forced have to choose between motherhood and a career.

“The problem of our world is not children being born: it is selfishness, consumerism and individualism which make people sated, lonely and unhappy," Francis said.

Francis is expected to continue emphasising demographics during the upcoming 2025 Holy Year, which will feature hope as its main theme.

In a Jubilee decree issued on Thursday, Francis called for a new social covenant among Christians to encourage couples to be open to having children.

EastObjective9522 on May 10th, 2024 at 15:43 UTC »

I love this trend of out-of-touch officials telling normal citizens to have more children while dismantling government support systems and decreasing quality of life. It's especially ironic coming from a religious figure whose organization doesn't pay taxes.

ATribeOfAfricans on May 10th, 2024 at 12:24 UTC »

Y'all it's really simple: people are hording all the wealth and resources in the world and it makes life miserable for a huge portion of the population

Sea-Witness-2746 on May 10th, 2024 at 11:41 UTC »

If I were Italian, I would not be taking family planning advice from a 60+ year old virgin, especially in this economy.