PARENTHOOD: IT IS SELFISH TO BREED PETS IN PLACE OF CHILDREN - POPE FRANCIS

 PARENTHOOD: IT IS SELFISH TO BREED PETS IN PLACE OF CHILDREN - POPE FRANCIS 

Pope Francis has addressed couples who have pets instead of children calling them selfish.

During a general audience at the Vatican, he spoke on parenthood and lamented that pets "sometimes take the place of children" in the society.

"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 practice, said the head of the world's 1.3 billion catholics, "is a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity. Thus civilization grows old without humanity because we lose the richness of fatherhood and motherhood, and it is the country that suffers" he added.