Pope warns couples it is a mistake to put off having children

In a special mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis told 15 couples that they should never substitute pets for children. The Catholic Church requires all couples seeking a sacramental marriage to agree to accept children as a gift from God. If an engaged couple informs the clergyman that they will not even consider having children, he cannot proceed with the wedding ceremony.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Those who own pets instead of having and raising children will find an old age of solitude and the "bitterness of loneliness," the Pope said during the daily Mass.

The couples who attended the mass at the Pope's Santa Marta residence were all married between 25 and 60 years.

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During the service, the Pope was critical of couples who delay having children. He said that they are being seduced by the myth that a life of material comfort is better than a family.

"You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be carefree," he said. "It might be better-more comfortable-to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two cats and the dog. Is this true or not? Have you seen it?"

"Then, in the end this marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness," he added.

According to Vatican Radio, the Pope told those gathered that the three most important aspects of Christian marriage are fidelity, perseverance and fruitfulness.

The Catholic Church requires all couples seeking a sacramental marriage to agree to accept children as a gift from God. If an engaged couple informs the clergyman that they will not even consider having children, he cannot proceed with the wedding ceremony.

The pledge is a part of the vows which the couple offer during the actual Liturgy. They are asked individually by the priest or deacon who witnesses their marriage: "Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?" They must answer "yes".   The Christian teaching has always been that love is fruitful.

The Pope also spent some time on June 1 at a football stadium in Rome in order to tell a rally of 50,000 members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement that Satan is trying to destroy the idea of the domestic church of the family.

The Pope listened to the testimony of numerous people, including a family of five and blessed them to give them strength against the devil's attacks. He said that families face attacks from the devil "because Jesus grows" within the Christian family, "in parent's love and children's lives."

The Catholic Church declares that the Christian family is a domestic church, the church in the home. Further, that the Christian family is the first cell of the whole Church, which is a family of families. So it should come as no real surprise that the enemy of the Church would strike at its smallest cell.

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