“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,” Pope Francis said during his January 5 general audience. “Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children.”

“Yes, it’s funny, I understand, but it is the reality,” the Pope continued. “And this denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity. And in this way civilization becomes aged and without humanity, because it loses the richness of fatherhood and motherhood.”