Pope Francis has a message for Catholics regarding the Roman Catholic Church’s long-standing ban on birth control.
It doesn’t mean you need to “breed like rabbits.”
On Monday, the pope encouraged Catholics to be responsible with procreation even though the ban still stands. During an hour-long news conference on the plane from Manila to Rome, the cool and outspoken pope said this:
“Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits – but no,” he said, adding the Church promoted “responsible parenthood.”
He mentioned a woman he recently met who already had seven children by caesarean sections and put her life at risk by becoming pregnant again. He said he chided her for “tempting God” and added: “That was an irresponsibility.”
Francis also bashed rich countries and international organizations who tried to influence lifestyles and morals of young people in deprived countries and chastised “ideological colonization.”
He told of an education minister he once knew who was offered loans to build schools for the poor, but on condition their libraries stocked a book on gender theory, the questioning of traditional male and female roles. He gave no other details.
“This is ideological colonization. They colonize people with ideas that try to change mentalities or structures,” he said.
“But this is not new. This was done by the dictatorships of the last century,” he said, citing the Hitler Youth and Balilla, its Italian equivalent under Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
The pope says there are other ways to practice natural family planning, and approves abstinence from sex during a woman’s fertile period.
SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
