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Pope Francis was chosen as the head of the Catholic Church in 2013 when the previous pope, Benedict XVI, resigned due to health issues. And he became one of the most open popes to different perspectives on Catholic doctrine in history. 

But in the last General Audience, Pope Francis expressed his opinion on people not having children and that caused quite a big reaction on the internet. The Pope called people who would rather have pets than children selfish and in a sense, less human, so it’s understandable why it didn’t sit well with a lot of Twitter users.

Image source: franciscus

More info: Vatican News

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Jods
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pity he’s not as vocal when it comes to historical sexual abuse committed by priests.

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Linda Boccia
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hear hear! Yes, it is a pity that the Pope is not so vocal in condemning sexual abuse by priests. It's unnatural for priests to not be able to marry and have sex.

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Justine Queequag
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If he really feels that way why not allow catholic priests to marry, honestly why does the world pay attention to mostly senile old men who head most of the world's religions? You know what's selfish? Having children u can't afford and condemning them to a life of poverty Having them because u are lonely and want someone to love Overpopulation, why not just adopt? Expecting them to take care of you when you get old Thats selfish

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ForgotMyPWSendHelp
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Family planning is a privilege. You are calling poor people selfish for having kids when they are the least likely to have access to abortion and birth control because of religious interference in government. It would be really nice if everyone could afford to make better decisions about their future and family life, but many can't. You need to exercise better critical thinking before you criticize people.

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Terd Fergison
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Who gives a fu-ck what the Bible claims? It's a breathtakingly evil fairytale book loaded with contradictions, scientific errors, historical errors, etc.

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Susan Widomski
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When the Bible was written, the population needed to grow. That was a very long time ago. Things have changed.

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Don't Look
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s time to become sterilized. I don’t think the ultra-christians should be allowed to procreate anymore.

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Russ Kincade
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The pope is faced with STEEP declines in membership and he's desperately trying to keep the numbers up.

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Edwin Lesperance
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What makes everyone think he's a virgin? My daughter swore on the cross that she was a virgin. Then she started barfing in the morning and looking a bit belly-fat... For all we know, the Pope could have children! How could anyone tell??? The sanctity of the confessional is sacred...

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Barbara Shaw
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Says the celibate old man who oversees an army of abusive pedophiles who are.... "celibate"???? Such sickness. All Catholic "celibacy" does is ensure the Church doesn't have to share it's wealth with spouses and children of "priests": Adults who promise to not have children and normal adult relationships and instead act out their repression on the children of the world

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Linda Boccia
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Love this comment!! Rest and use a condom or better yet have a vasectomy!!

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Patricia Hughes
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Methinks the pope is strategizing on how to lure pets with “tithes-in-tow” to church!

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PoppyWebb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

15I heard about and I've made such great money. It's really user friendly and I'm just so happy that I found out about it. The potential with this is endless. Here’s what I do...______________ W­­­w­­­w.W­­­o­­­r­­­k­­­J­­­o­­­i­­­n­­­1.c­­­o­­­m

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J-A Laine
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually, Earth has a capacity of feeding and housing around 24 billion people, but people are crammed up in tall concrete buildings and call it "home". I call it a concrete bunker.

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Carrie de Luka
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Estimates for capacity are around 10 billion. We are already at 7.7 billion and damaging the planet.

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Duane Bunt
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So the Bible is right? Finally people accept the only truth.

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Healing Moon Breezes
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2 years ago

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overpopulation is a myth - do some research and look it up.

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Gin
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You look it up without the word 'myth' in the title. In an interview David Attenborough said: “In the long run, population growth has to come to an end. There are some reasons for thinking that will happen almost inevitably. “But it is very alarming at the rate we’re going, and although people will say, ‘In the long run, we are going to stabilize’, they’re going to stabilize, as far as I can see, at a rather higher level than the Earth can really accommodate.” Roughly 83 million people are added to the world's population each year, according to the UN, with modern advances in medicine and nutrition to thank for their survival into adulthood and old age. Spend a minute watching the world population counter tick up on Worldometers and you’ll see just how quickly we’re swelling in numbers. The current figure stands at around 7.7 billion, and this is projected to become 9.8 billion by 2050. With the harm we are currently doing? Unsustainable.

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Mir Adwari
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not true. Humans are damaging the planet NOW. We are growing in numbers. Can't you see the connection? Overpopulation is not just about how many humans but about how many humans the planet can healthily sustain. In truth the planet could do with less humans right now. Whether or not that causes problems for us all societally and economically is another issue - one we need to work on resolving sooner rather than later. Though the world's governments continue to come up with short term solutions that they hope will fool people into thinking they are doing enough. They are not.

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Dave P
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2 years ago

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How is it overpopulated? You can take the whole worlds population and place it all in Texas and you would have a lower population density than Manhattan. We have a resource allocation problem, not a population one.

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Fajar Kurniawan
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2 years ago (edited)

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The earth is not overpopulated. It's just people choose to live on certain specific area (city). If people just spread to mountains, forest, swamp, savanna, outback, desert, arctic, etc. there are still plenty of space for us

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Every Wednesday morning, the Pope holds a General Audience which is not meant for a specific group of people but everyone who would like to come and hear what the pope has to say and who want to receive benedictions in various languages.

His last audience was this Wednesday and a clip of it went viral because of what was said. The pope chose to talk about how young people are more often choosing to substitute children with pets and in his opinion, that is selfish.

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Serial pacifist
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think having gold-plated churches and cardinals who drive Mercedes also has something to do with the counter-argument.

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He introduces what he thinks is happening, “Today we see a form of selfishness in our society. The other day I was talking about the aging population. People don’t want to have children, maybe they’ll have one child, and not more than that. And many couples don’t have any children because they don’t want any or at least no more than one child. But they have two dogs and two cats that take the place of children. It’s funny, I understand, but it is a reality.”

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Then the pope goes on to explain why he thinks it’s a bad trend: “This denying of fatherhood and motherhood makes us lesser. It takes away our humanity. So our population gets older and less humane because we lose the wealth of parenthood. Then our country suffers.”

The Pope believes that only parenthood can make a person feel fulfilled. Because children will be the ones who will close your eyes and there will always be someone who will take care of you when you are old, which sounds like kind of a selfish reason to have kids.

“It’s a risk, yes, but having a child is always a risk, regardless if it’s a biological child or adopted, but it’s riskier to not have them at all. It’s riskier to negate fatherhood and motherhood.” The risk is in that a woman who negates motherhood, either spiritual or material, is not complete; she is missing something essential. The Pope asks people to think about that.

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Wistiti
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I do not feel comfortable leaving my children anywhere near any church.

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It’s actually a very unexpected statement to hear from Pope Francis as he has always surprised us by being so liberal, loving and inclusive. He has said that atheists also can go to heaven, he accepted that people with non-traditional orientations are not evil and their decisions are not for him to judge, he doesn’t deny science and he even thinks that women who have had an abortion deserve forgiveness.

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Because Pope Francis has a reputation of being non-judgemental, judging people for not having children was unpredicted. What bothered people was that he called childless couples selfish when the people who decide to not have children think that on the contrary, they are being responsible. If they are not in a good financial state to have children, they don’t want to have a child and not be able to take care of it. Also, they realize that the world is already overpopulated and it’s becoming more polluted here, so having more children would add to the problem.

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Cori
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This. So much this. I feel increasingly more guilty by the day for my decision to have kids. The more apparent our doomed time-line becomes, the more guilty and selfish I feel about what I chose to do.

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Bored Panda wanted to know if it is even possible to live a happy and healthy live without being selfish and reached out to Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D., a Los Angeles, California psychologist and she assured us that it is. But she disagreed that people who don't have children are selfish.

The psychologist explained, "For many people, choosing TO have children in a troubled world, without adequate resources, would be the actual selfish choice. Many people are able to devote more time, energy, and resources to living a healthier life when they are not also responsible for managing the lives of one or more children."

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. a
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. The church needs more little kids to molest, then fail to protect, then deny, come on!

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Kathryn Baylis
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some of us wanted kids, but married later in life and proceeded to have miscarriages instead. Are we selfish because we didn’t get married right after having our first period at 12?

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The Pope's statement might have hurt a lot of faithful people who looked up to him and who used his words as guidance because inevitably Catholics who don't want children exist. We asked what would psychologist Gretchen Kubacky would say to such a person and her answer was that the reality is that religion doesn't dictate our lives anymore.

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She said, "I would note that, while I am not a religious authority, matters of faith, morality, and personal ethics are often complex, and inadequately addressed by the blanket statement of the Pope. Religion should function as a guideline, particularly in cases where there may be conflicting medical, financial, or emotional needs at play. This was not a personal judgment on one individual."

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Tenacious Squirrel
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And some people have kids but literally don’t do anything to care for the future earth their kids have to live in.

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's a prime example of a Judgy McJudgeface, but then, that comes with the job, pretending you're not when in reality you are.

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As mentioned In Pope Francis eyes people who don't have children lose a part of their humanity. He thinks that women are not complete and lack something if they don't become mothers. A lot of people share the sentiment and often when a woman says she will not be having children meets them with judgement and tries to convince them that they will regret it later as being mothers is in their blood.

Dr. Gretchen Kubacky is not sure about that. She has not read any reliable research that would claim that "women have an inborn maternal instinct or 'mother's intuition.' Many women are aware that they are poorly suited to parenting, mothering, or nurturing other human beings - or perhaps that they simply prefer a different life or lifestyle. To impose a threat of this nature - that one will be filled with regrets and unfulfilled desires without a child or children - is simply wrong."

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The devil did good at his arts and crafts! Black kitties are the best.

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's a good boi and would never swear, that's the human speaking, but he would take the hat and rip it to pieces because it would be a great chew toy.

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It’s hard to say if more people now don’t want children in comparison to the past because maybe now they feel less pressure to have them and a few decades ago, it was just unthinkable to not have a child as it was just a stage of life you must reach.

The Pope sees this new awareness of what people really want as a problem, but what do you think of Pope Francis’ statement and what do you think about the current pope in general? We would love to hear opinions, regardless of whether you have children or not, want them or not.

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Samantha Lomb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cause the pope thinks humans are better/more important than animals. He is very wrong but that is what he thinks

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Brian Bennett
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They also don't pay for the injustices they did to our indigenous children they buried them in mass graves. And the pope wont' even issue an apology!

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K Witmer
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Catholicism is another word for guilt. I used to be Catholic and that's all they want to do is instill guilt.

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Healthy human relationships and healthy pet relationships to channel it all.

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, this, how is growing self awareness negative. It's a necessity if we want to become better at what we do. And one big one is stopping this innate humping to bake more humans behavior. And if we do that by projecting our feelings to care for something on a pet. Then that's fine by me. More pets, less unwanted children!

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Rissie
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh my, look at that selfish man with those.. Nope, can't do it. It's not funny. People that love pets are aware of how important empathy is and that being good to each other is easier if you mean it and feel it. Having children without appreciating that is actually what is selfish. Just following your f tard snake brain to procreate in stead of understanding the implications.

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Samantha Lomb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It also says its easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get to heaven. But the catholic church ignores that too

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Raven Sheridan
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He only wants his followers to have children because the ordained paedophiles in the church, don't have enough children to molest.

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