Pope: Having Pets Instead of Children Is Selfish

Having pets in lieu of children is “a form of selfishness,” Pope Francis said this week.

 Some people “do not want to have children, or just one and no more,” he said in Italian, according to USA Today.

“And many, many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one – but they have two dogs, two cats,” he said. “Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children.”

He called on couples who can’t have children to adopt. He said adoption is “among the highest forms of love, and of fatherhood and motherhood.”

The comments at the Vatican came in context of a lesson centered on Joseph as the “foster father” of Jesus, NBC News reports. He held his first general audience of 2022.