The Holy Father tells Roman Catholics "you don't need to breed like rabbits"

"Some think, and excuse the term, that to be good Catholics, they must be like rabbits," the Pontiff said to journalists on the flight home from the Philippines. He said there were many "licit" forms of birth control, in an apparent reference to the Natural Family Planning method of monitoring a woman’s cycle in an attempt to avoid pregnancy. It follows a tour of Asia, where the Pope has showed his more conservative side by defending the church’s stance on artificial contraception and gay marriage.

The Pontiff argued that no external organisation should enforce its views on family size, criticising the imposition of Western values on the developing world. "Every people deserves to conserve its identity without being ideologically colonised,” he said. African bishops have raised concerns that ideas about birth control and gay rights are often imposed on communities as a condition of aid.

"The key teaching of the Church is responsible parenthood. And how do we get that? By dialogue," Francis said on Tuesday. "There are marriage groups in the Church, experts and pastors." In 2013, six months after becoming Pope, he urged the Church to drop its "obsession" with contraception, divorce, gays and abortion, in an interview signalling a dramatic shift in the Vatican's tone. The Pope now hopes to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay this year, as well as the Central African Republic and Uganda. He already has a three-city trip to the United States planned for September.