The comments that he made about the selfishness of pet-owning couples who would not have children were, well, catnip to the opinionating classes. The reaction made clear that what is offensive is the Pope’s having any opinion at all on women’s fertility. I had known that Archbishop Welby had himself cared for the dying alcoholic whom both men believed was his father. “‘If it is just a family obligation it is totally unjust because poorer families, families struggling to make ends meet, families with significant debt simply will feel guilty,’ Welby said. But the readers of the Telegraph are constantly being told that the Church is collapsing under the weight of a heartless bureaucracy.

Source: The Times January 14, 2022 00:15 UTC