• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A woman wearing a mask for protection from COVID-19 plays with a child in Rome in this Oct. 13, 2020, file photo. Pope Francis is scheduled to open a May 14 meeting discussing the challenges posed by Italy's low birth rate. (CNS photo/Yara Nardi, Reuters)

Pope will open an online meeting on ‘demographic winter’ in Italy

May 4, 2021
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, News, Respect Life, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn
A woman and a child are seen at the beach in Naples, Italy, in this May 4, 2020, file photo. Pope Francis is scheduled to open a May 14 meeting discussing the challenges posed by Italy’s low birth rate. (CNS photo/Ciro De Luca, Reuters)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis is scheduled to open a meeting discussing the challenges posed by Italy’s low birthrate.

“For more than a decade, Italy has become an increasingly elderly and less populated country, suffering from structural and legislative shortcomings at the fiscal, economic and social level,” which have all exacerbated a drop in births, according to a press release about the meeting.

Pope Francis will open the May 14 meeting, the Vatican announced May 3. Organizers said it is the first meeting of its kind in Italy on the general state of its birthrate and demographics.

The meeting, it added, will “launch an appeal for co-responsibility in restarting the country beginning with new births” as well as studying the challenge of a “demographic winter” and look for a new way to talk about the issue of birthrates.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, confirmed the pope would attend the opening of the online initiative by delivering a speech at a Rome auditorium near the Vatican.

Promoted by the Forum of Family Associations, the meeting will also look at the demographic situation in other parts of the world and how it has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, the press release said, more than 1 million families in Italy are living in poverty because of the pandemic.

The forum, it said, hoped to find ways to take advantage of any opportunities that may come with Italy’s post-COVID-19 recovery and resilience plan, in which Italy was set to receive some 209 billion euros in grants and low-interest loans from the European Union’s recovery fund — the largest amount to any one country in the EU.

The organizers will bring together representatives of government institutions, businesses, mass media and the world of culture and sport.

Gianluigi De Palo, president of the Forum of Family Associations, said in a press release April 29 that Italy’s low birth rate is not just a “cold statistical fact” but represents a real national tragedy that is already crippling the nation’s social security system, welfare assistance, universal health care and the future of younger generations.

The country lacks policies and programs to adequately turn the situation around and lacks seeing the family and children as a common good, he said.

The May 14 meeting, he said, will be an opportunity to study the “many problems that have led to these demographic, social and economic effects” and find ways out of “this very dangerous dead end.”

Pope Francis repeatedly has expressed concern about falling birthrates in Italy and throughout Europe. Marking Italy’s Day for Life Feb. 7, he said, “In Italy, births have declined, and the future is in danger.”

The pope called on Italians “to take this concern and try to ensure that this demographic winter might come to an end, and a new springtime of baby boys and girls might flourish.”

Citing numbers released by the Italian national statistics office, the Forum of Family Associations said, Italy registered 439,747 births in 2018 and 420,084 in 2019 — almost 20,000 fewer than the previous year. In 2020, 404,104 births were registered, showing a further decrease of 3.8% and almost 16,000 fewer births than in 2019. Meanwhile, the numbers of deceased rose 17.6% in 2020 with almost 112,000 more deaths than in 2019.

Also see

Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break

Caring for others, serving life is the ‘supreme law,’ pope says

Jesus did not ignore those in need, and neither should Christians, pope says

Cardinal Czerny asks church to remember seafarers on Sea Sunday

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war

Copyright © 2021 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Carol Glatz

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

  • superman Movie Review: Superman

  • DUAL ENROLLMENT Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

  • Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass

| Latest Local News |

Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 

Deacon Gary Elliott Dumer Jr., active in men’s ministry, dies

Radio Interview: The music and ministry of Seph Schlueter

Hunt Valley parishioner recalls her former student – a future pope

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

| Latest World News |

Poll: Record-high percentage of U.S. adults say immigration good for country

Patriarchs support Christian communities attacked by Israeli settlers in solidarity visit

Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break

1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary

Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Poll: Record-high percentage of U.S. adults say immigration good for country
  • Scopes Monkey Trial ignited century-long debate on evolution and belief 
  • Patriarchs support Christian communities attacked by Israeli settlers in solidarity visit
  • Pope Leo visits Italian Carabinieri station, Poor Clares during summer break
  • 1 officer dead, 3 seminarians kidnapped after attack on Nigerian seminary
  • Trump administration to appeal after judge blocks ICE detentions based on race
  • Remember common decency in immigration enforcement
  • Sponsors – for life
  • Listen for God this summer

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en