The 86-year-old pontiff opened the second day of a conference in Rome dedicated to the decline in the number of births in Italy, a phenomenon that experts estimate will lead to the impoverishment of the nation. Politicians, businesspeople and social leaders participated in the meeting.
ADVERTISING
In 2022, the number of births in Italy fell for the first time below the threshold of 400.000 (393.000), according to the National Institute of Statistics (Istat). In contrast, 713.499 deaths were recorded for a population of around 58 million.
Francisco, who received a standing ovation as he entered the conference presided over by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, lamented that today's young people live "in a social climate in which forming a family is becoming a titanic effort."
The Argentine pontiff spoke of the difficulties in planning for the future, due to low wages and high rents in Italy, the third largest economy in the euro zone, whose population is aging and where young people are struggling for stable full-time work.
ADVERTISING
“We need to prepare fertile ground for a new spring to flourish and leave this demographic winter behind,” said Francis, who called for “progressive policies” to prevent Italy from falling “into sadness.”
“Reactivating the birth rate means combating forms of social exclusion that are affecting young people and their future,” he added.
A world without babies
“Have you ever imagined a world without babies?” was the provocative question used to convene the conference, organized by the Birthrate Foundation, a group linked to Catholic associations that defend the family.
ADVERTISING
Despite religious ties, the conference's speakers mostly avoided some of the more controversial topics related to Italy's population decline, such as abortion and surrogacy. The preference was to focus on possible solutions, such as reducing taxes.
A key figure in the government and among the leaders of Meloni's far-right Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy) party, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida acknowledged that the birth rate is a cause for concern also “because we want to safeguard the culture and language of Italy”.
The minister denied that it is a policy to defend “race”. He was criticized for his statements last month against what he called the “ethnic replacement” of Italy due to the arrival of migrants from Africa and Asia.
ADVERTISING
Elected thanks to women's votes in September's legislative elections, Meloni dedicated a large part of her speech to mothers and families. She criticized what she called the “dominant culture” that turned the subject of “family” into a taboo: “We live in a time in which talking about birth, motherhood, family has become more difficult. Sometimes it almost seems like a revolutionary act.”
“We want it not to be a scandal to say that we are all born of a man and a woman, that it is not taboo to say that the birth rate cannot be sold, that the uterus cannot be rented and that children are not chosen like in a store ”, he added.
Italy's population recorded rising numbers until 2014, the year in which this trend began to reverse.
ADVERTISING
Yesterday (11), Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti warned that if Italy's birth rate continues to decline, the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will fall by 18% by 2042.
Read also
* The text of this article was partially generated by artificial intelligence tools, state-of-the-art language models that assist in the preparation, review, translation and summarization of texts. Text entries were created by the Curto News and responses from AI tools were used to improve the final content.
It is important to highlight that AI tools are just tools, and the final responsibility for the published content lies with the Curto News. By using these tools responsibly and ethically, our objective is to expand communication possibilities and democratize access to quality information. 🤖
