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Having pets, not kids, robs us of 'humanity': Pope Francis

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Pope Francis at St. Peter" s="" Basilica="" in="" the="" Vatican="" on="" March="" Tiziana="" Fabi="" Pool="" via="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/life/01/05/20210314-pope-francis-philippines-christianity-500-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>Pope Francis at St. Peter&#x27;s Basilica in the Vatican on March 14, 2021. Tiziana Fabi/Pool via AFP</figcaption></figure></div><p>VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis risked the ire of the world&#x27;s childless dog and cat owners Wednesday, suggesting people who substitute pets for kids exhibit &quot;a certain selfishness&quot;. </p><p>Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, Francis lamented that pets &quot;sometimes take the place of children&quot; in society. </p><p>&quot;Today... we see a form of selfishness,&quot; said the Pope. &quot;We see that some people do not want to have a child. </p><p>&quot;Sometimes they have one, and that&#x27;s it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children. This may make people laugh but it is a reality.&quot;</p><p>The practice, said the head of the world&#x27;s 1.3 billion Catholics, &quot;is a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity&quot;.</p><p>Thus, &quot;civilization grows old without humanity because we lose the richness of fatherhood and motherhood, and it is the country that suffers&quot;, the Pontiff said at the Paul VI Hall. </p><p>Francis has been photographed petting dogs, allowed a baby lamb to be draped over his shoulders during Epiphany in 2014 and even petted a tiger and a baby panther.</p><p>But while his predecessor, Benedict XVI, was a cat lover, Francis is not known to have a pet at his Vatican residence.</p><p>In 2014, Francis told Il Messaggero daily that having pets instead of children was &quot;another phenomenon of cultural degradation&quot;, and that emotional relationships with pets was &quot;easier&quot; than the &quot;complex&quot; relationship between parents and children.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/20/21/domestic-violence-against-women-almost-satanic-pope-francis">Domestic violence against women &#x27;almost satanic:&#x27; Pope Francis</a></li></ul><p>On Wednesday, while inviting couples who are unable to have children for biological reasons to consider adoption, he urged potential parents &quot;not to be afraid&quot; in embarking on parenthood. </p><p>&quot;Having a child is always a risk, but there is more risk in not having a child, in denying paternity,&quot; he said.</p><p>The Argentine Pontiff has in the past denounced the &quot;demographic winter&quot;, or falling birth rates in the developed world. </p><p>Earlier this year, he criticized modern society, in which career and money-making trumps building a family for many, calling such mentality &quot;gangrene for society&quot;. </p><p>RELATED VIDEO</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VdecsDNnUWQ?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, Francis lamented that pets 'sometimes take the place of children' in society. 