Pope Francis tells couples not to choose pets over children

VATICAN CITY-Pope Francis urged couples to raise children, rather than substitute them with cats or dogs, during mass at the Santa Maria church. According to the pontiff, for a married couple to remain childless "will bring nothing but the bitterness of loneliness.”

 During the mass the pope spoke to a group of 15 married couples celebrating their wedding anniversaries. He focused on some of the “fundamental aspects of marriage”: “perseverance, loyalty, and fruitfulness.”

 Also reflecting on married couples’ difficult moments, Francis stressed that “one goes back. One asks for forgiveness, and loves moves on, like Jesus’s love for the Church.”

 The pope reminded the couples present at the mass that “Jesus does not like marriages without children, who want to remain without fruitfulness,” and that the current tendency is a product of the “wellness culture” of ten years ago, a culture where it is not necessary to have children because “it is more convenient, one can travel, have a house on the beach, where it is more comfortable to have a dog and two cats.”

 Francis explained that “love cannot grow based upon a dog and two cats, arriving in an older age full of loneliness. It does not do what Jesus does with the Church; which is to nurture this love.”