In my entire existence as a Catholic Filipino, I consider Pope Francis’ appointment as ‘the most progressive aka most rockstar thing’ that has happened to Catholic Church. But today I was taken aback by his statement.
Sometime after my college years, the Philippine legislative department went under heavy fire from all sides because the Catholic Church accused it of supporting an anti-life legislation, the Reproductive Health Bill. This is not the point of this post, but I just wanna say, whatever happened to the ‘separation of Church and State’ crap?
Anyhoo, point is, I was having a conversation with my family over a video call when I was on a trip, and I told them that I’m not gonna stop traveling. My Mom smiled and whispered, “Patay, hindi na talaga mag-aasawa” (“Oh dear, she’s definitely not planning on getting married”), which I heard. I responded by saying, “Yes, Ma, I’ll just buy a cat.”
Mom tried to argue with me that having a cat is the same with having a baby, because you have to feed it, bathe it, and take care of it. Then I said,
But Ma, you don’t need to send cats to school!
Me, 2021
Mom burst into laughter, but refused to say she agreed. But I know she did.
Now, back to the controversial statement by Pope Francis.
Perhaps he does not have an idea how much the minimum wage is in different countries, especially in the developing world. Perhaps he does not have an idea how much it costs to raise a kid. Perhaps he does not have an idea that education is becoming more and more expensive. Sometimes, couples who opt not to raise kids are not necessarily selfish, they could be in fact selfless because they chose to save a potential life to experience all the crap happening in this world.
Just saying. Kids are expensive. And I love cats.