Pope Francis has hit out at couples who choose to have pets rather than children.
Calling those particular couples "selfish", Francis called for parents to have more offspring to solve the West's "demographic winter".
Speaking on parenthood during a general audience at the Vatican, Francis lamented that pets "sometimes take the place of children" in society.
"Today we see a form of selfishness," he said. "We see that some people do not want to have a child."
"Sometimes they have one, and that's it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children. This may make people laugh but it is a reality," he added.
The practice said the head of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, "is a denial of fatherhood and motherhood and diminishes us, takes away our humanity."
He said couples should have more children to address the "demographic winter" in much of the West and called for couples who can't have children to be open to adoption.
Meaning, "civilization grows old without humanity because we lose the richness of fatherhood and motherhood, and it is the country that suffers", the pontiff said at the Paul VI Hall.
The pope has lately made several controversial remarks, with the most recent being that said sex outside of marriage is not the "most serious" sin.
The leader of the Catholic Church was speaking with reporters on a flight from Italy to Greece on Monday, December 6, when he made the groundbreaking remarks.
The Pope told the reporters: "Sins of the flesh are not the most serious."
Francis, who has held the position of Pope and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 2013, went on to say that pride and hatred are "the most serious" of sins.
The question and answer session comes after the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, stepped down from his role earlier this month after a French publication claimed he had entered into an illicit relationship with a woman.
Archbishops and senior members of the Catholic Church are supposed to partake in clerical celibacy, meaning they cannot have sex.
