Pope say's it's couples who do not have kids are selfish and greedy

[DigitalDrifter]

This is the basis of the death of the west. We can complain all day about immigrants from other cultures and I will), but the truth is if we had maintained a healthy growing society of westerners we would be able to sustain ourselves without needing outside labor forces.
Europe especially is dying, and in just a few decades will not exist as far as western values and traditions. It's sad, but this is one of those cases where we've done ourselves the greatest harm.

Pope Francis: not having children is selfish
Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiplies, pontiff tells audience in St Peter’s Square

Pope Francis has chided couples who choose not to have children, saying the decision is a “selfish” act. The statement, made in his general audience in St Peter’s Square, will be seen as especially controversial in Italy, which has recorded a steady drop in its birth rate for decades.

“A society with a greedy generation, that doesn’t want to surround itself with children, that considers them above all worrisome, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society,” the pope said. “The choice to not have children is selfish. Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiplies: It is enriched, not impoverished.”

*Edited - Please post only a small section of the article.

Pope Francis not having children is selfish World news The Guardian

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

 

[Mr. H.]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

What is selfish is killing your children before they're born.

 

[martybegan]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

 

[Katzndogz]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

 

[Care4all]

Some of our problems in the USA could be from not having enough children. Like with Social Security....if our birth rate in this nation had continued at the same rate it was when Social Security was created, we wouldn't be in the same shape we are in now....but then again, we would not be in the shape we are now with social security if Congress had not essentially spent what we accumulated in surplus and now owes it back to SS.

This is a birth control problem, primarily...is what the Pope is referring to imo....married couples are having LESS children. It's the mentality that more children is 'bad', or more children means the wife wont be able to work and bring in half the income...?

I disagree with you Luddly, it is a degree of selfishness on the parent's part....they want life to be better for themselves in the material sense and they want life to be better for the few children they do have, in the 'material sense' as well.... That's not really a selfless position is it? .... it could fall more towards selfish... it might not have initially begun in a selfish manner....it was just a means for us to control our own lives by using the means of birth control....we had 5 kids instead of 10....way more than enough for the strongest of mothers to handle....though my Italian grandmother came from a family of 10 kids and they all turned out fine and successful in life...however, in poverty as children...

Right now, it is what society expects...it expects no one to have children, unless they can afford to give their children a "good materialistic" life....again, imo. It is the norm to expect people to have fewer children, and when they don't, we label a certain sect of them, "Welfare Queens", or we want to take their children away from them and label them crazy, like ''Octomom''....(she still was crazy in my mind), or we give examples of mother's that have 5 children using Andrea Yates as the example.

And it isn't even just the selfishness of parents, it is the selfishness of the Society they live in...no one seems to want to help people with lots of children, or even help a woman with one child... seems as though some even make it as though it is DISHONORABLE in this society of ours.... to help anyone, for any reason. as example, the 47%

 

[Mr Natural]

How many kids does the Pope have?

 

[Katzndogz]

Childless couples or even singles sublimate. They have little dogs that replace the companionship of children.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I gotta disagree with the Pope on this one.
If fewer people had children just because thats what is expected of them we'd have fewer unwanted children that the parents dont give a crap about.
Then you have the people who have kids for all the wrong reasons.

 

[Care4all]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

Not really...he is talking about ALL people who choose to use birth control, to control the amount of children they have...mostly married couples...the most women on birth control is the MARRIED SEGMENT of women.

 

[Katzndogz]

I gotta disagree with the Pope on this one.
If fewer people had children just because thats what is expected of them we'd have fewer unwanted children that the parents dont give a crap about.
Then you have the people who have kids for all the wrong reasons.

You don't understand what the pope is saying. He's questioning and challenging the reasons why children are unwanted.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I gotta disagree with the Pope on this one.
If fewer people had children just because thats what is expected of them we'd have fewer unwanted children that the parents dont give a crap about.
Then you have the people who have kids for all the wrong reasons.

You don't understand what the pope is saying. He's questioning and challenging the reasons why children are unwanted.

The why is moot. The end result is the same.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

That's the problem the whole world faces, the people who cannot afford children are having way too many children, and the ones best able to care for them are the ones not having any.

I've always said though, that the best thing about liberals is that they don't have kids.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

To put it simply, they don't want to grow up.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Childless couples or even singles sublimate. They have little dogs that replace the companionship of children.

Seattle is a very liberal city, very high concentration of whites, and there are more dogs than children there. A lot more.

 

[martybegan]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

To put it simply, they don't want to grow up.

I was like that myself until I found my fiancee. I'm going to be an older father (probably early 40's when we have our first kid) but she is younger.

 

[Pop23]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

What is selfish is killing your children before they're born.

But then you don't have to work hard to feed and shelter them.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Funny thing about those who want to control the reproduction of others - they don't actually support those children.

What is selfish is having children you don't want or can't support.

His statement has nothing to do with abortion, but about the decision too many people are making not to have children. Most of the people forgoing children CAN support them, and that is the really big issue facing western countries today. And I don't even want to bring up Japan.

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

To put it simply, they don't want to grow up.

I was like that myself until I found my fiancee. I'm going to be an older father (probably early 40's when we have our first kid) but she is younger.

Better late than never.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The people the pope meant are those who choose to remain childless for selfish reasons. Their money is spent on vacations. They don't want to be tied down. They don't want to get baby sitters for party night. They don't want to consider the needs of children.

Yep, but I sure don't understand how this is considered selfish.

To be a selfish act you'd have to prove childless couples also believe if they bring more children into the world benefits it but chose not to anyway, a debate which plenty arguments could be made either way.

 

[whitehall]

That's funny, the same critics once praised the new Pontiff for calling the rich selfish.