Pope Francis wades into ‘childless cat lady’ debate as he hails Indonesians for having large families

Pope Francis brought up a topic that has rocked the American political discourse in recent months as he praised Indonesians for choosing large families over pets during the first stop of a historic four-country trip to Asia.

The 87-year-old pontiff was speaking alongside Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo in a hall full of politicians at capital Jakarta’s presidential palace on Wednesday, when he drew smiles as he reignited the long-running debate over childless pet owners.

The Vatican leader said Indonesia set an example for other countries with dwindling birth rates.

“And your country ... has families with three, four or five children that keep moving forward, and this is reflected in the age levels of the country,” he said during his speech.

"Keep it up, you’re an example for everyone, for all the countries that maybe, and this might sound funny, (where) these families prefer to have a cat or a little dog instead of a child," he quipped. “This can’t go well.”

When Mr Widodo, who sat beside the Catholic religious leader, chuckled, Francis turned to him and asked: “It’s true, isn’t it?”

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In the US, JD Vance, the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has faced a wave of negative press over past comments referring to some rival Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies”.

The pope, who is widely viewed as a progressive pontiff, faced criticism in 2022 when he called couples who have pets instead of children selfish and a threat to humankind.

In 2023, he spoke about an incident when a woman requested him to bless her dog, calling it “my baby” and said he became angry. “I lost my patience and scolded her, saying many children are hungry and you bring me a dog.”

The issue of plunging birth rates in the West has remained a focus of his papacy and he lamented the low fertility rate in the European Union where there were 1.5 births per woman, much lower than the 2.1 rate required to sustain the population.

In May this year in Rome, he said: “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.”

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During his 12-day tour, the pope will visit Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore, in what would test his health during the long journey as he battles myriad health issues.

The focus of his tour would be religious tolerance between faiths, fight against interreligious violence, and climate change.

The pope is in the Muslim-majority Asian nation where Catholics make up 3 per cent of the population. But over the recent years, the country has faced the challenges of repeated instances of discrimination and violence against religious minorities.

From January 2021 to July 2024, there were at least 123 cases of intolerance, including rejection, closure or destruction of places of worship and physical attacks, Amnesty International noted on the eve of Francis’s visit.

The pope’s first stop was the iconic “Tunnel of Friendship” that connects Southeast Asia’s largest mosque, the Istiqlal, to the Jakarta Cathedral. The pope said he was in awe of the tunnel that is serving as the bridge between two religions.

“This tunnel paves the way for meetings, dialogues, as well as the real possibility of discovering and sharing the mysticism of living together, mingling and meeting and taking part in a wave that, although somewhat chaotic, can be a real experience of fraternity,” Pope Francis said.

Francis appeared in good spirits despite his longest 13-hour long journey to Jakarta. At a private meeting with his fellow Jesuits, he quipped: "The police have come to take me away."

He also warned priests and nuns against greed, saying, "The devil enters through your pockets".