Vatican
Pope Francis refused to bless a woman’s dog and scolded the owner. At the beginning of his speech at an event on births in Italy, the Pope narrated the incident that took place on Friday in Rome.
12.05.2023 13.37
Online since today, 13:37
At the General Audience two weeks ago, a 50-year-old woman opened a bag containing a puppy and said, “This is my son, please bless him.” she described, “So many children are starving, and you bring me a dog to bless!”
Opening his address to hundreds of Italian families and business and political leaders at the two-day “General Assembly on the Birth Rate,” Pope Francis shared a second anecdote.
Criticism of the dog-over-child trend
His secretary recently met a woman with a pram in St. Peter’s Square. “Like a good-hearted priest, he reached out to bless the baby… it was a puppy!” the pope said. Francis has repeatedly criticized publicly that there is a tendency in Italy to coddle dogs as surrogate children while fewer children are born.
“The fact that children are born is the most important indicator of the hope of a people”, the Pope emphasized in his speech at the “General Assembly on the Birth Rate”. “When few children are born, there is little hope. And this not only has an impact on the economy and society, but also threatens confidence in the future,” said Pope Francis.