Starting a family in Italy is becoming a “titanic effort” that only the rich can afford, Pope Francis has warned.
Addressing a conference on Italy’s demographic crisis, he said pets were replacing children in many households.
Also on stage were dozens of young people, wearing t-shirts saying “we can do this” – alluding to convincing people to have more children.
Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates in the EU and births dropped below 400,000 last year – a new low.
