“I don’t think that either the Church or the Pope desires more Catholics, or, perhaps more accurately, desires a higher birth rate for Catholics.”

I would say that it is implicit in a ban on artificial contraception that there would be,in the absence of abstinence,an increase in the birthrate.Compare average family sizes before and after the advent of the pill.

I am sure that the Pope is quite familiar with the words of Genesis http://www.bibleontheweb.com/bible.asp “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29

I am also sure that as a the head of a proslytising Church the Pope is aware of the implication that a declining numbers of the faithful,as in France, will have on the of the Church and ultimately its authority and existence.

Just my view,but Rome must remember its history and that ultimately the demographics are everything.