The Bishop of Rome and the sovereign of the Vatican, Pope Francis, remarked on Wednesday, 5 January, that couples who choose to have pets instead of children are selfish, claiming that replacing children with pets "takes away our humanity," The Guardian reported.
Addressing an audience in the Vatican, the head of the Catholic Church said that "today … we see a form of selfishness."
"We see that some people do not want to have a child. Sometimes they have one, and that’s it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children. This may make people laugh but it is a reality," he said.
The Pope has his fair share of photos in which he is petting animals like dogs or even panthers, but he reportedly does not have a pet animal of his own.
He further went on to say that not having children is "a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity, and consequently, civilisation grows old without humanity because we lose the richness of fatherhood and motherhood, and it is the country that suffers."
This is not the first time he is making such a statement.
He had said, almost seven years ago, that the decision of people to keep pets instead of producing children was "another phenomenon of cultural degradation", because the emotional relationships with pets was "easier" than the "complex" parent-child relationship, the BBC reported.
On Wednesday, he took that forward, saying that "having a child is always a risk, but there is more risk in not having a child."
'Sounds Hypocritical'
The Pope's comments have evoked strong reactions on Twitter.
Some called out his 'hypocrisy', based on the fact that he himself has no children of his own.
Others seemed to be pointing out the benefits of having pets instead of children.
Finally, some questioned the Pope's use of the word 'selfish'.
(With inputs from The Guardian and BBC)