Pope Francis ‘urges parents to have fewer children

The Pope wants couples to have fewer children in order to lessen the environmental damage being done to the planet, a Vatican panel has been told.   

Environmentalist Peter Raven made the comment at a workshop on biodiversity, which discussed Catholic Church attitudes toward environmental issues.   

Pope Francis has previously said avoiding pregnancy is not an ‘absolute evil’, but the church remains unwavering in its opposition to artificial birth control.Dr Raven stated, LifeSiteNews reports: ‘Pope Francis has urged us to have fewer children to make the world more sustainable.’   

But he continued: ‘We do not endorse any of the artificial birth control [methods] that the Church does not endorse.’   

Dr Raven stated, according to the site’s account of the workshop, that ‘we need a more limited number of people in the world’.   

At the same Biological Extinction workshop, a paper was presented by Dr Paul Ehrlich, who argued that Catholic teachings had resulted in ‘collective failure’ to reduce the world’s population.In a press conference onboard a flight last year, Pope Francis said abortion is a crime and ‘absolutely evil’, but he added: ‘Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape.’