States General of Natality, Meloni next to Francesco. The premier: “Maternity is not for sale, wombs are not rented”. The Pope to politics: “Only the rich can afford children”

ROME. The theme of the birth rate is “central for everyone, especially for the future of Italy and Europe”. The birth of children, «in fact, is the main indicator for measuring the hope of a people. If few are born it means that there is little hope. And this not only has repercussions from an economic and social point of view, but undermines confidence in the future». Pope Francis affirms this when speaking at the “Stati Generali della Natalità” underway in Rome, denouncing that “only the rich can afford children”. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni takes the stage with the Pontiff. The entrance to the auditorium hall is accompanied by a long applause. The Prime Minister will affirm that “maternity is not for sale and wombs are not rented”.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio says he “learned that last year Italy reached an all-time low in births: just 393,000 new born. It is a fact that reveals great concern for tomorrow. Today, bringing children into the world is perceived as a family business. And this, unfortunately, conditions the mentality of the younger generations, who grow up in uncertainty, if not in disillusionment and fear. They live in a social climate in which starting a family is turning into a titanic effort, rather than a shared value that everyone recognizes and supports».

Girls and boys often feel “lonely and forced to rely solely on their own strength”, and this “is dangerous. It means slowly eroding common life and resigning yourself to solitary existences, in which everyone has to go it alone. 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 these times – observes the Bishop of Rome – between wars, pandemics, mass displacements and climate crises, the future seems uncertain. Friends, it’s uncertain – it spells out – it doesn’t seem, it’s uncertain. Everything goes fast and even the certainties acquired pass quickly».

In this context of “uncertainty and fragility, the younger generations experience more than anyone a feeling of precariousness, for which tomorrow seems like a mountain impossible to climb”. The Pope lists some problems: «Difficulty in finding a stable job, difficulty in maintaining it, prohibitively expensive houses, skyrocketing rents and insufficient wages are real problems. These are problems 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».

There are «almost insurmountable conditions for women. The most damaged are they, young women often forced to crossroads between career and motherhood, or crushed by the weight of caring for their families, especially in the presence of frail elderly and non-autonomous people. Right now, women are slaves to this rule of selective work.”

Then Francis specifies: the birth rate and hospitality «should never be opposed because they are two sides of the same coin, they reveal to us how much happiness there is in society. A happy community naturally develops the desire to generate and integrate, to welcome, while an unhappy society is reduced to a sum of individuals who try to defend what they have at all costs. The Pontiff therefore asks to support happiness, especially that of young people, because “when we are sad we defend ourselves, we close ourselves off and perceive everything as a threat”.

The Bishop of Rome recounts two anecdotes, “two photographs”, episodes that took place “here in St. Peter’s square”. Two weeks ago “my secretary” was “in the square and a mother came with a trolley with the child. He, a tender priest, approached to see the child. He was a little dog …. Fifteen days ago, at the Wednesday audience, I went to say hello, I came across a lady, fifty years old like me – the Pope jokes and smiles – I greet the lady and she opens a bag. And she says: “My little boy blesses me”, a little dog. There I didn’t have the patience and I scolded the lady: “Madam, many children are hungry and you are with the dog”. Brothers and sisters, these are scenes from the present but if things go like this it will be the habit of the future, let’s be careful».

Today there is “a culture that is not a friend, if not an enemy, of the family, centered as it is on the needs of the individual, where continuous individual rights are demanded and there is no mention of the rights of the family”. Bergoglio reiterates that he is living in a crisis from which one can only get out if there is solidarity: «The lady prime minister – he says referring to Giorgia Meloni’s speech – spoke of the crisis, the key word. But let’s remember two things about the crisis: you can’t get out of the crisis alone. Either we all go out or we don’t go out. And we do not emerge from the crisis the same: we will either emerge better or worse. Remember this.”

Earlier, in her speech, Giorgia Meloni thanked «for this invitation. For this beautiful and engaging initiative that is becoming a tradition, thanks beyond the usual words: we live in an age in which talking about birth, motherhood and family is increasingly difficult and seems like a revolutionary act. We had been warned: fight to prove that leaves are green in summer or two plus two equals four, you need to have courage to support fundamental things for our society, but this room does not lack courage».

From 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, to hope and believe in a better future than this uncertain present. The courage of ideas must be matched by that of actions: we find ourselves governing the nation in this complex time and what we said before arriving at the government is what we are trying to achieve. Democracy takes the form of the bond between the commitments you assume and the acts you carry out».

Another topic touched upon by the President of the Council of Ministers: if women “do not have the possibility of realizing the desire for motherhood without renouncing the professional one, it is not that they will not have equal opportunities, they will not have freedom”.

Then he adds: «We have dedicated a ministry to the birth rate, we have linked it to family and equal opportunities, it is not a choice of form but of substance. It is the synthesis of the program of a government that wants to face the great crises, among which the demographic one is undeniable. Because children are the first stone in building any future.”

The demographic one “is a challenge that we take forward not with a dirigiste approach, but with the subsidiary approach, of those who believe that the task of the state is to create favorable conditions, with the regulatory environment and above all on a cultural level, for the family, all ‘initiative, to development, to work’. Meloni highlights: “Some will say that we want an ethical state: no, we want a state that accompanies and does not direct, we want to believe in people, to bet on Italians, on young people, on their hunger for a future”.

The Premier declares: “We want to live in a nation in which being fathers is not out of fashion, but a completely socially recognized value, in which they rediscover the beauty of being parents which is a beautiful thing that takes nothing away from you and that gives you so much”. For decades – «the dominant culture has told us otherwise. We want it no longer to be scandalous to say that we are all born of a man and a woman, that it is not taboo to say that the birth rate is not for sale, that the uterus cannot be rented and children are not over-the-counter products that you can choose and then maybe give it back.’ He talks about the data from which the feeling of melancholy of the Italians emerges: «We want an Italy in which people have the desire to do things, who put aside that feeling of melancholy: the history of the Italian people is not a history of melancholy but of great businesses, of results that have amazed the world. That is the Italy that we want to see and experience again: a nation in which being a father is not out of fashion but a socially recognized value and where everyone rediscovers the beauty of being parents”.

We must overcome “the demographic winter, the Pope said”, which means “fighting something that goes against our families, our homeland, against our future. Your Holiness, we love our families, we love our homeland, we believe in our future and we will do our part to the end”.

The goal that “we set ourselves crosses all government policies and having an ad hoc ministry” represents “the choice to have the point of view of the family on all the policies that the government carries out: not only launching specific provisions but considering in every area the added value that those who have children give to this society». Giorgia Meloni recalls the government’s measures to support families, from the single check to the subsidies for mortgages for young people. And you mention the disbursement of the fringe benefit which “we want to keep at three thousand euros, giving priority to those with dependent children”.

The aim is “to face this challenge with the eyes of reality, we don’t want to put on the straitjacket of ideology”. Pope Francis «among the many beautiful words that he gave us, who said that the family is the story from which we come, a story interwoven with bonds that have formed much more than material goods. If we all come from a bond, even if sometimes imperfect, severed, it is important that this bond is transmitted, that the flow of generations is not interrupted, that communities know how to be supportive and vital».

The Premier was struck by the «reading that His Holiness has given of the concept of crisis: that the crisis does not in itself have a negative concept. The word crisis comes from the Greek krisis, choice, decision: it is distinguishing, that typical sieving work that cleans the grain of wheat after harvesting and which allows you to choose by separating and it is the condition that allows the grain to be flour and wheat. I find it a very powerful metaphor that tells us that where there is no crisis there is no rebirth, the crisis is the engine of action, of choice, of responsibility and if it is for each of us, it is all the more so for who» has government commitments. “Releasing the best energies of society is our choice.”

Francesco applauded at the end of the Prime Minister’s speech. When the Premier returned to her place, the Pontiff stood up to shake her hand, and uttered a joke to which Meloni reacted by laughing.

In the end, the Pope and the Premier receive two bonsai plants as a gift from the organizers. Applauded by the audience, Bergoglio and Giorgia Meloni pose on stage for a photo with the third grade children of the private school in Rome, Villa Flaminia, then head towards the exit.