Rise in birth rate requested

ROME -- Pope John Paul II delivered a historic speech to the Italian parliament Thursday, urging Italians to have more children to reverse the country's declining birth rate.\nIt was the first time a pope has addressed Italy's legislature. In the speech, the pontiff also called on authorities to show prisoners "a gesture of clemency" by reducing their sentences and repeated his call for the new European Union constitution to recognize Christianity's tradition on the continent.\nJohn Paul acknowledged the significance of the visit considering the turbulent history of relations between Italy and the Roman Catholic Church.\nUp until 1929, the Vatican refused to recognize the Italian government. Popes, deprived of papal territory that once covered much of Italy, called themselves "prisoners" in the Vatican.\n"We all know that this association has gone through widely different phases and circumstances, subject to the vicissitudes and contradictions of history," John Paul told lawmakers gathered in Palazzo Montecitorio, the lower chamber of parliament.\nHowever, the bond between the two is now deep, he said, adding that Italy's very identity "would be most difficult to understand without reference to Christianity, its life-blood."\nHis speech, interrupted about 20 times by applause, was anticipated for weeks by Italians and treated as an enormously symbolic event for this mostly Roman Catholic country.\nHowever, it was not without opposition: A handful of deputies said they wouldn't attend to underscore that Italy remains a lay country and a dozen or so gay activists protested at a nearby piazza.\nThe 82-year-old Polish-born pope covered most of the general topics he has addressed in his 24-year pontificate, including respect for the dignity of man, democracy, peace and justice.\nBut his emphasis was on Italy -- and particularly what he called "the crisis of the birth rate."\nItaly has one of the lowest birth rates in the world -- 9.3 births per 1,000 inhabitants -- and one of the oldest populations.\nThe United Nations has warned that Italy's economic future is at risk because its shrinking work force will be unable to support its aging population without an influx of migrant workers.\nThe pope called the situation "another grave threat that bears upon the future of this country, one which is already conditioning its life and its capacity for development."\n"Above all, it encourages -- indeed I would dare to say, forces -- citizens to make a broad and responsible commitment to favor a clear-cut reversal of this tendency," he said.\nThe pope also urged clemency for Italian prisoners.\n"A gesture of clemency toward prisoners through a reduction of their sentences would be clear evidence of a sensitivity which would encourage them in their own personal rehabilitation for the sake of a constructive reinsertion into society," the pope said.\nAnd he called on European leaders, who are drafting a new EU constitution, to recognize the role Christianity has played on the continent.\n"There is a need to guard against a vision of the continent which would only take into account its economic and political aspects," and not its religious ones, the pope said.\nThe speech represented the latest step in improving relations between Italy and the Church, which ruled a vast swath of the Italian peninsula until the mid-19th century.\nWhen the new Italian army seized the territory when Italy was unified in 1861, the pope was only left with Rome and some coastal areas, which were finally taken in 1870.\nAt the time, the government guaranteed the pope independence within what is now the Vatican and offered to compensate the Church for the lost lands. But Pope Pius IX refused to recognize the government.\nThe Vatican and Italy signed a treaty that recognized both as sovereign entities in 1929.