I agree that people decide to have kids or not have kids for many reasons and who cares what the Pope thinks but…
There was a lot more to his speech than just the lines about pets and selfishness. He talked about adoption and the need for for people to take responsibility for the orphans. He talked about just bringing a child into the world does not make you a parent, what makes you a parent is being responsible for that life or any life. He’s advocating for the kids already here that need a home, in my opinion that’s not a bad thing. Although he might have gone with “we claim to be pro life, let’s show the world we mean it by taking care of the unwanted children”.
Part of the transcript.
This kind of choice is among the highest forms of love, and of fatherhood and motherhood. How many children in the world are waiting for someone to take care of them! And how many married couples want to be fathers and mothers but are unable to do so for biological reasons; or, although they already have children, they want to share their family’s affection with those who do not have it. We should not be afraid to choose the path of adoption, to take the “risk” of welcoming children.
I pray that no one feel deprived of the bond of paternal love. And those who are afflicted with orphanhood, may they go forward without this unpleasant feeling. May Saint Joseph protect, and give his help to orphans; and may he intercede for couples who wish to have a child.
To be a mother or father is not simply a matter of biology; more profoundly, it entails caring for the life of a family. In this sense, one of the highest forms of parenthood is to take on the responsibility of becoming adoptive parents, prepared to welcome an orphaned or abandoned child as part of one’s own family. Let us pray that through Joseph’s intercession, fathers of families will be given the grace to respond to their noble vocation, and that the many children in our world who long for a secure and loving home will find a welcome on the part of good and generous families.
On a side note, it looks the Vatican could use a better website where they actually get the dates right.
