Speaking at a conference on birth rates with Giorgia Meloni, Pope Francis recounts a story of how he scolded a middle aged woman for calling her dog 'her baby', saying: "Madam, so many children are hungry, and you with this little dog!" pic.twitter.com/hniqQXSmQM
— Catholic Sat (@CatholicSat) May 12, 2023
Of course he is right with his usual crassness. The middle aged woman may have had children in her younger days. Calling a dog out of an abundance of affection a baby does not warrant a scolding, especially from the Pope. PopeWatch’s beloved dog Baby, who passed away nine years ago this month, could attest to that. Demographic winter is a clear and present danger however, and too many of the pals of the Pope think it is great.
About what is he right?
That we are not having enough kids and too many married couples who can have kids are foregoing kids all together.
The same Pope Francis who criticized a woman for having too many children earlier in this pontificate, for breeding like rabbits? That Pope Francis?
There are couple who could not have children who do adopt and rescue dogs and or other animals- my husband and I rescue dachshunds . We have been married for just over twenty years have and continue to be open to life, and as U am now turning 61, it appears that won’t be happening anytime soon. So when we are asked about our childlessness our response has been that while God chose not to bless us with children He chose to bless us with dachshunds (and our current count is four btw)
Please do not think that I am being flip- our childlessness has been a very painful burden and cross as we had hoped and prayed for a large family from the start of our marriage- including my staying home and homeschooling.
Agnes you are an exception to the rule. The commentary is about those who can but choose not to. Intention matters.
I get the impression that our society is so deprived of community and love that they use pets to nurture in order to fill the void. We all have a need to give of our love to other humans. And when we cannot, we can look for misguided ways to love.
The commentary is about those who can but choose not to. I
Yep. My Bride and I were married eight years before we were blessed with kids. My heart goes out to married couples who want kids and are unable to have them.
I am surprised he was willing to share a stage with Meloni.
But yeah, his self-aggrandizing gossip about the faithful is way past its use-by date. And it seems lay women disproportionately get the back of his rhetorical hand: rabbit mom, the South African “proselytizer” who introduced him to a converted Anglican, and now the lady with her dog.
And then there’s the Chinese woman who got a literal swat from him in the square.
The pattern is quite clear, if damaging to the narrative.
Agnes:
There are people like my parents who had 10 kids only to see five die in infancy. And I get people who like dogs. But here in the SF Bay Area there are too many people who place dogs over kids. Enough is enough. The Pope may have been right in the wrong spirit (as Chesterton would say: he might not have the right to be right). But he was right.
The crucial difference I see is how both of these women have dogs masquerading as children ( the use of the pram, bless my child ). Western civilization in its death throes is confusing animals and humans and equating their relative value. Another way in which Truth is under assault. Truth under assault is the defining conflict of our time.
The crucial difference I see is how both of these women have dogs masquerading as children.
Treating animals in this manner is not unusual and not restricted to this time or to Western Civilization. I recall that middle aged women in a tribe in New Guinea often treat a favored pig as a surrogate child. This strikes me as harmless, so long as couples who could have children are not foregoing children and using pets as a kid substitute. Even in these decadent times I do not think these people are causes of the birth dearth. Much more important are birth control, spreading homosexuality, abortion and diminishing fertility in general, and a fleeing from the responsibilities of parenthood by far too many. Caesar of course, by thwarting parental authority, and seeking to, in effect, raise kids to be good little minions of the zeitgeist, is abetting in this crime against nature.
I think that small, nonverbal creatures tend to trip some of the same wires in women that infants and small children do. No harm, no foul. I have sometimes called our snimals “baby cat” and “baby dog”. That being said, they are NOT my “fur babies” ( shudder-gag) and I am not their “parent”. I recognize them for what yhey are: unuque, fully adult members of their own nonhuman species, and respect them accordingly.
(OTOH, it would never occur to me to call Old Snort “baby donkey”. He would fix me with a jaundiced eye before performing a perfectly executed spin kick. I do not like trips to the ER. He is a fully adult member of his species, but he is also thoroughly disreputable.)
Wow! He actually said something Catholic, even though other of his statements contradict him. Actions ,not words, reveal the real character of this man.