This week, for the first time since assuming high office in October, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met with Pope Francis to discuss several pressing topics facing Italy, namely its severe demographic crisis and how to solve it.
The Pontiff, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Vatican Foreign Minister Archbishop Paul Gallagher received the Italian premier along with her partner Andrea Giambruno and daughter Ginerva on Tuesday, January 10th for “cordial talks,” where they discussed, among other things, the family, Italy’s catastrophically low birthrates, and the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera reports.
Following the meeting, Prime Minister Meloni tweeted: “An honor and a strong emotion to have the opportunity to dialogue with the Holy Father on the great issues of our time.”
“The fight against poverty, the family with particular reference to the demographic winter, migrants, Ukraine were the topics at the center of the cordial talks between the Holy Father Francis and the president of the Giorgia Meloni Council. [The talks] underlined good bilateral relations,” a Vatican statement published following the meeting explained.
Pope Francis and Prime Minister Meloni have both repeatedly decried Europe’s “demographic winter,” felt most acutely in Italy. For many consecutive years, Italy has recorded some of the lowest birthrates relative to the 28 European Union member states.
In 2020, the Italian birthrate, which has been well below the replacement level (2.1 children per woman) for over four decades, fell to a record low of 1.16 births per woman as would-be parents grappled with socially oppressive and economically ruinous COVID-19 lockdowns, as The European Conservative previously reported.
Spain’s birthrates, for years now, have also been at apocalyptically low levels.
In an address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, the pope warned of the rising fear of bringing children into the world, saying:
Tragically, we increasingly witness the emergence of a “fear” of life, which translates in many places into a fear of the future and a difficulty in creating families and bringing children into the world. In some contexts, I think for example of Italy, there is a dangerous fall in the birthrate, a veritable demographic winter, which endangers the very future of society. I wish once more to encourage the beloved Italian people to confront with tenacity and hope the challenges of the present time by drawing strength from their religious and cultural roots.
Concerning this crucial issue, which last May he called a “real social emergency,” Pope Francis and Prime Minister Meloni can join hands.
In December of 2021, Meloni, before making history and becoming Italy’s first female prime minister, said:
I am preparing to govern the nation. I am ready to do what Italians ask me to do by understanding my responsibility. The first things I would do if I went to the government would be policies to support businesses—and incentives for the birth rate.
One of the biggest problems in Italy concerns the birth rate. A large birth rate incentive plan to restart births would be a priority. With the rates now in 30 years we will no longer be able to pay pensions.
In a Twitter post a few months later, Meloni reiterated these statements, writing: “The challenge of the birth rate is our challenge of life. While in Italy the left has always preferred the shortcut of immigration to solve the problem of demographic decline, Fratelli d’Italia has always placed family assistance policies at the center of the debate.”
A few days later, Meloni, in a statement that again addressed Italy’s dreadful demographic data, said: “Italy is a nation destined to disappear. Fratelli d’Italia has been leading for years, often alone, a battle to ensure that the birth rate is a priority for Italy and for Europe.”
Meloni spent 35 minutes with Pope Francis before meeting with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
