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Pope Francis encouraged Italians to have more children, even amid
prices. He cautioned young
for making "selfish,
" choices that are resulting in record low birth
. He said this is threatening Italy's economic future. He called the situation a "
winter". Italy saw a record low number of births last year of 392,000, which combined with an
number of deaths - 713,000. The Pope urged couples to have babies instead of
. He rebuked a woman who asked him to bless her "
," which was actually a dog. The BBC wrote that Italy is often dubbed "the country of
cribs". It quoted Elon Musk as tweeting that: "
is disappearing."
