Meloni and Pope Francis to the States General of the birth rate

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has arrived at the Conciliazione Auditorium, where the third edition of the States General of the Natality is being held. The Prime Minister is seated on the stage of the Auditorium next to Pope Francis, to whom the audience gave a long and warm applause.

Prime Minister Meloni, sitting next to Pope Francis and the president of the Foundation for the birth rate Gigi De Palo, said that talking about the family “is a revolutionary act” and that the family itself represents an “absolute priority for our nation”.

And he added: “Since day one, the government has put children and parents at the top of the political agenda, it has made the birth rate and the family the absolute priority of our action, because we want Italy to have a future again, a hope and believe in a better future than this uncertain present». The Prime Minister then declared that she did not want an “ethical state”, “but a state that accompanies and does not direct”. And on women: “They are not free if they have to choose between children and work.”

Then the defense of the traditional family: “It is not taboo to say that we are all born of a man and a woman: motherhood is not for sale and wombs are not rented”.

The intervention of Pope Francis
The Pope began by saying that creating a family “is a titanic undertaking and a solitary effort”. And he added: «Young people often feel alone and forced to rely exclusively on their own strength is dangerous. This means slowly eroding common life and resigning yourself to solitary existences, in which everyone has to do for themselves. With the consequence that only the richest can afford, thanks to their resources, greater freedom in choosing what shape to give to their lives. And this is unfair, as well as humiliating. Perhaps never as in this time, between wars, pandemics, mass displacements and climate crises, the future seems uncertain. Friends, it’s uncertain, it doesn’t seem, it’s uncertain. Everything goes fast and even the certainties acquired pass quickly».

The Pontiff touched on the most current themes: «Perhaps never as in this time, between wars, pandemics, mass displacements and climate crises, the future seems uncertain. Indeed it is uncertain ». And he added: «And in this context of uncertainty and fragility, the younger generations experience more than anyone a feeling of precariousness, so that tomorrow seems like a mountain that is impossible to climb. Difficulty finding stable work, difficulty maintaining it, prohibitively expensive housing, skyrocketing rents and insufficient wages are real problems. These are problems, said Francis: “that challenge politics, because it is there for all to see that the free market, without the indispensable corrective measures, becomes wild and produces ever more serious situations and inequalities”.