Pope praises Indonesians for choosing children over cats

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Pope Francis praised Indonesians on Wednesday for their large families and suggested that people in other countries are choosing to have pets rather than bring up children.

The 87-year-old pontiff was speaking alongside Indonesia's president Joko Widodo in Jakarta on the first stop on a four-country trip to Asia.

"And your country...has families with three, four or five children that keep moving forward, and this is reflected in the age levels of the country," he said.

"Keep it up, you're an example for everyone, for all the countries that maybe, and this might sound funny, (where) these families prefer to have a cat or a little dog instead of a child," he added, turning to Widodo with a chuckle.

The pope made similar comments in May when he addressed a conference in Rome on the demographic crisis gripping Italy and Europe.

"Homes are filled with objects and emptied of children, becoming very sad places. There is no shortage of little dogs, cats, these are not lacking. There is a lack of children," he said on that occasion.

Although Indonesia has a higher birth rate than many Western nations, the trend has also been declining there in recent years.

In the United States, JD Vance, the running mate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, has faced a wave of negative press over past comments referring to some rival Democrats as "a bunch of childless cat ladies."

(Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)