Pope Francis caused a stir today following his comments during a general audience at St Peter’s Square. The Pope stated that couples who choose not to have children are performing a “selfish” act. “A society with a greedy generation, that doesn’t want to surround itself with children, that considers them above all worrisome, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society,” he said. “The choice to not have children is selfish,” he continued. “Life rejuvenates and acquires energy when it multiples; it is enriched, not impoverished.” He focused the remainder of his address on the joy that children can bring and the role that they play in society. “She [his mother] would say, ‘I have five children like I have five fingers. If they beat one of my fingers, all five hurt. All of my children are mine, but each one is different’,” he said. “You love your child because he is a child, not because he is beautiful, healthy and good; not because he thinks like me, or embodies my desires. “A child is a child; a life created by us but destined for him.” The comments follow on from his address last week where he warned of a ‘culture of wellbeing’ where a couple has money and a nice lifestyle but no children. “In the end, this marriage comes to old age in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness.”