Ping!
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis blamed a "culture of well-being" and comfort for convincing married couples that a carefree life of world travel and summer homes was better than having children.
He said married couples should look at how Jesus loves his church to learn how to be faithful, perseverant and fruitful in their vocation.
About 15 married couples celebrating their 25th, 50th or 60th anniversaries joined the pope June 2 for his early morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
In his homily, Pope Francis said fidelity, perseverance and fruitfulness were the three characteristics of God's love for his church and should be the same three pillars of a Christian marriage.
Just as the church is fruitful by generating new children in Christ through baptism, marriage should be open to new life, the pope said in his homily, according to a report by Vatican Radio.
"In a marriage, this fruitfulness can sometimes be put to the test, when children don't come or when they are ill," he said.
Couples who deal with infertility or loss can still look to Jesus and "draw the strength of fruitfulness that Jesus has with his church."
However, "there are things that Jesus doesn't like," he said, such as married couples "who don't want children, who want to be without fruitfulness."
The pope blamed "this culture of well-being" for convincing married men and women to intentionally remain childless.
This culture of comfort, he said, "has convinced us that 'it's better to not have children! It's better. That way you can see the world, be on vacation, you can have a fancy home in the country, you'll be carefree.'"
People think it is better or easier "to have a puppy, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the puppy. Isn't this true or not? Have you seen this?" he asked the people in the congregation.
"And in the end, this marriage will end in old age in solitude, with the bitterness of bad solitude."
The pope said Jesus is always faithful to his church -- "his bride: beautiful, holy, sinner, but he loves her just the same."
Jesus is always faithful, even to those who sin and deny him; and "this fidelity is like a light" that shines on marriage, showing what "the faithfulness of love" looks like, he said.
In addition to always being faithful, love also must be "untiring in its perseverance," he said.
Just as Jesus forgives his church, spouses must ask each other for forgiveness so that "matrimonial love can go on," he said. "Perseverance in love" must endure, in good times and bad, "when there are problems, problems with the kids, money problems, problems here and there."
"Love perseveres," he said. "It keeps going, always seeking to resolve things in order to save the family."
Ping!
In before the: I love my pets better than humans because they don’t hurt me but people have.
/johnny
Bless his soul, I don’t know why we can’t have all. Pets and people. All of them God’s blessings in various ways.
What creeps me out most here is folks who make a point of being gratuitously childless, or single, or other things that militate against conventional family. Some people have unfortunate circumstances. And there are other circumstances (ahem, good Pope, why not recommend that Catholic priests have pets?) that come from one’s religious callings.
IB4TPWMA
Our three cats are not amused!
We love our dog. He is a member of the family. But if my wife and kids were starving I would cook him myself. I love animals, but they aren’t people.
Many don’t get that
Hey, shouldn’t that beagle’s face be pixilated? :)
Except perhaps for the woman in the next story who dragged her infant down the aisle on the train of her wedding dress.
Tell you what, popester...how about you get rid of the divorce industry and the and the man hating courts along with their enablers in fedgov that have all conspired to make having children more of a potential risk than a reward and we’ll talk. A lot of us have found that a dog or cat doesn’t come with the government bullseye that having kids come with.
Pissed me off when, yet again, I heard and saw all sorts of tweets and FB posts this year on Mother’s Day about, “even if your children have fur, happy Mother’s Day”. Oh, STFU!
“Who am I to judge?”
For folks who live alone such as I, having pets is a blessing.
**Pope Francis tells couples not to substitute dogs and cats for children**
Amen. The reason for getting married is to pro-create. The Bible is the guide here.
“Male and female, he made them.”
This guy is really getting on my nerves.
.
What about the pope and his priest? They chose not to marry and have children. How lonely will they be in their old age?
My wife and I know the difference, but don’t tell the kids their dogs and cats weren’t equal members of the family.
I love these threads.
“Women with dogs who don’t have children are just bitter feminists, ha ha ha.”
But do you want more single women to have children?
“Well, anyway, men who have children are always financially wiped out by bitter feminists, so it’s better for men not to marry and have children.”
I thought the bitter feminists were single with no children.
“All women are bitter feminists. And infertile couples should be adopting all the world’s parentless children, because everyone knows that’s their obligation.”
Thanks, FR, for explaining it all!