Pope Francis has called on couples to have more children instead of pets, and on governments to establish policies that are more beneficial for families. That is why he surprised on Tuesday with the announcement of a reform to the Vatican’s paternity leave policy, which grants just three days of paid leave to new parents.
Vatican policy sets benefits for Holy See employees who have children or care for disabled family members.
According to the measure, a six-month maternity leave with full pay was already contemplated, which can be extended for another six months at half salary. Couples who adopt a child have similar rights.
The new law establishes a three-day paid leave for fathers. In contrast, in Italy fathers can take 10 days of paid leave, while mothers have five months.
The notable difference in the Vatican’s measures sparked criticism on social media, with one person declaring that three days is barely enough time to learn how to properly install a child seat in a car.
Although the Vatican employs priests and nuns who do not have children due to the nature of their religious vows, the city-state in the center of Rome also employs hundreds of lay people who work in the bureaucracy of the Holy See, in the Vatican Museums and in the care of the place.
Francis has frequently lamented what he calls the “demographic winter” in Italy, where birth rates are among the lowest in the world.
“Dogs and cats take the place of children,” he lamented during a recent general audience. “This denial of fatherhood and motherhood diminishes us, takes away our humanity. And in this way civilization becomes older and devoid of humanity because the richness of fatherhood and motherhood is lost. And the country suffers.
