OPINION:
Pope Francis spoke truth to the self-centered and incurred the wrath of the woke.
At a recent public audience, the pontiff said the rising plague of childlessness is caused by selfishness, and many young couples have substituted pets for progeny.
“We see a form of selfishness,” the pope observed. “People don’t want to have children. Maybe they’ll have one child and not more than that. And many couples don’t have any children because they don’t want any … but they have two dogs and two cats.”
Nothing raises the hackles of millennials faster than suggesting that there’s something wrong with choosing not to have children or that their precious fur babies are no substitute for real babies.
A writer for Cosmopolitan responded that she’s never wanted, children. “I can tell you how hard it’s been not to have them. … I’m talking about society that constantly shames and pressures women into motherhood.”
A CNN commentator said the flight from parenthood helps everyone by giving us a more sustainable planet. “Population growth is one of the key drivers of both climate change and biodiversity loss, according to authoritative sources.” The God of the Bible says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” The God of Climate Change says, “Be sterile and stagnate.”
Those who warn of the consequences of a world without children aren’t the only ones laying guilt trips.
In the April 29 issue of the British edition of Vogue, Nell Frizzell wrote an article titled: “Is Having a Child Pure Environmental Terrorism?”
We pause for a reality break. Most of those who aren’t having children are driven not by misguided concern for the planet, but by personal considerations. They’ve chosen a BMW in the driveway over a baby in the nursery.
Children are work, hard work. As infants, they wake you up at 2 a.m. As toddlers, they can throw tantrums at your favorite restaurant. As teenagers, they blame you for not making the world a perfect place.
Children force you to grow up, something many millennials want to avoid at all costs. Pets are easy. You love them, and they love you back.
An increasing share of young adults opt for vacation homes, spur-of-the-moment getaways and retirement accounts over investing time and money in raising little humans.
U.S. households of married couples with children fell from 40% of the population in 1970 to 20% in 2012. In a 2021 Pew Research survey, 44% of nonparents aged 18 to 49 say it’s unlikely they’ll ever have children — up seven points from when the same question was asked in 2018.
Pope Francis also said the denial of motherhood and fatherhood not only diminishes us but “in this way, civilization becomes aged.” He was referring to falling fertility leading to aging populations.
The global population went from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6 billion in 2000. It is no coincidence that the 20th century also saw the greatest advances in history. Population decline is terra incognito.
Every industrialized nation now has below-replacement fertility. Worldwide, fertility fell almost 50% in 72 years, from an average of 4.7 children for the average woman in 1950 to 2.4 today.
Perhaps as early as 2050, we’ll get into global population decline. Once it starts, the descent could be rapid. If you’re concerned about empty shelves, think of what it will be like when we start running out of people — especially those who do society’s vital work.
Parenthood is challenging. But it offers life’s greatest rewards. Holding a newborn in your arms, seeing a child take his first steps, seeing your children with children of their own — these are feelings hard to put into words.
Shmuley Boteach — an Orthodox rabbi, author and the father of nine — agrees with the pope: “A world that has lost its innocence has trouble appreciating beings that are innocent. A world that has become selfish has soured on the idea of a life of selflessness. A world that has become grossly materialistic is turned off to the idea of more dependents who consume resources. And a world that mistakenly believes that freedom means a lack of responsibility is opposed to the idea of needy creatures who ‘tie you down.’”
When he discusses contemporary culture, I often disagree with Pope Francis. On the selfishness of the childless by choice and the coming Demographic Winter, his views are indisputable.
• Don Feder is a former Boston Herald writer and syndicated columnist.
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