Pope Francis criticized the weapons and contraceptive industries on Friday, accusing them of destroying or preventing life during a speech at a conference addressing the demographic crisis affecting Italy and Europe.
Europe’s fertility rate has remained around 1.5 births per woman for the past decade, below the 2.1 rate needed to maintain population levels. Italy is particularly impacted, with births dropping to a record low in 2023, marking the 15th consecutive annual decline despite government efforts to reverse the trend.
“There is a fact that a demographics scholar told me. Right now the investments that give the most revenue are the arms factories and contraceptives. One destroys life, the other prevents life … What future do we have? It is ugly,” the pope said.
The 87-year-old pontiff has long been a vocal opponent of the arms industry and has reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s ban on artificial birth control, though he supports natural methods of avoiding pregnancy.
At the Rome conference, the pope stated that the number of births is the first indicator of “a people’s hope,” and Europe is increasingly becoming “an old, tired and resigned” continent.
“Homes are filled with objects and emptied of children, becoming very sad places. There is no shortage of little dogs, cats, these are not lacking. There is a lack of children,” he said.
Francis urged governments to implement “serious and effective” family-friendly policies to address the issue, enabling mothers to balance work and childcare, providing young couples with stable jobs and housing opportunities.
“I know that for many of you the future may seem unsettling, and that amidst declining birth rates, wars, pandemics and climate change it is not easy to keep hope alive. But do not give up, have faith,” he said, referring to young people.
The pope’s remarks on contraceptives were welcomed by Pro-Life & Family, an Italian Catholic conservative group, which criticized “the enormous economic and commercial interests that gravitate around the use of contraceptives.”