ROME (RNS) A Tuscany priest is offering a baby bonus of more than $2,000 to Italian Catholic families who have three or more children. But there are strings attached.
The gift to parishioners in Staggia, a village close to Siena, was announced online as an “extraordinary contribution” by the Rev. Stefano Bimbi, the local Catholic priest.
Reuters
The $2,210 (2,000 euros) will be handed over only when the children are baptized. Additionally, the offer applies strictly to Italian couples who were married in the church, are residents of the village and have three or more children.
Nonetheless, Bimbi said the decision had the potential to help Catholic couples. “Our parish wants to give concrete help in this moment of crisis for families, that with courage accept the gift of a child!” he wrote in the announcement.
The parish coffers are not all “roses and flowers,” the priest said, so its economic affairs council had allocated an unspecified limited sum for the baby project. Bimbi was not immediately available when contacted by Religion News Service to discuss whether anyone had yet taken him up on the offer.
The financial incentive follows a similar initiative by the Italian government, which promised low-income families $88 (80 euros) a month for each child under 3 years old.
It also comes against the backdrop of a national campaign in Italy opposing alternative family models. Organizers of a Rome protest in June said 1 million people attended a rally against teaching children about gay relationships in schools and giving rights to same-sex couples.
The Italian government said it intends to legalize gay partnerships, although same-sex marriage or adoption is not yet up for debate.
Pope Francis Kissing Babies
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's square on September 25, 2013 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLI (Photo credit should read ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child during his general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini) (credit:AP)
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Pope Francis kisses a child at the end of his visit at the San Rufino cathedral, in Assisi, Italy, Friday, Oct. 4, 2013. Pope Francis took a pilgrimage to his namesake's hometown Friday, urging the faithful to follow the example of the 13th-century St. Francis, who renounced a wealthy, dissolute lifestyle to embrace a life of poverty and service to the poor. (AP Photo/Filippo Monteforte, pool) (credit:AP)
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Pope Francis kisses Mattia, a 6-month-old child, as he leaves after his weekly General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct.23, 2013.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (credit:AP)
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Pope Francis kisses a child during his general audience at St Peter's square on October 23, 2013 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's square on October 23, 2013 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - NOVEMBER 24: Pope Francis kisses a baby as he leaves on popemobile during the end of the Solemnity of Christ the King in St. Peter's square on November 24, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Today's solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the liturgical year, marks the conclusion of the Year of Faith proclaimed earlier by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the last year of his reign. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives on his pope-mobile for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2013. Francis is bundling up for the cold snap belting Italy, donning a white double-breasted winter coat and scarf for his weekly general audience. It didn't seem to work. Several times Wednesday, the pope used his sleeves as a muffler to keep his hands warm amid temperatures that dipped to freezing with the wind chill factored in. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (credit:AP)
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VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - DECEMBER 04: Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives in St. Peter's square for his weekly audience on December 4, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. At the end of his General Audience Pontiff called on everyone to pray for a group of nuns taken by force from the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Saint Tecla in the ancient Christian town of MaÕlula in Syria. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives in St. Peter's Square for the weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) (credit:AP)
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"Papa Francesco kisses a baby & makes sure she is warm with her hood!"-Vatican Instagram (credit:newsva / Instagram)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican on November 6, 2013. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he greets the crowd after a Holy Mass on the occasion of the Day for Catechists at St Peter's square on September 29, 2013 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby girl as he is surrounded by security during his visit to the Varginha slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, July 25, 2013. Francis on Thursday visited one of Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns, or favelas, a place that saw such rough violence in the past that it's known by locals as the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano) (credit:AP)
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Pope Francis (C) kisses a baby in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican on October 13, 2013, at the end of the celebration of the mass as part of the Marian Day event. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his general audience at St Peter's square on October 23, 2013 at the Vatican. AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby during his visit to the Varginha favela in Rio de Janeiro, on July 25, 2013. The Varginha favela is a community of 1,000 people which for decades was under the sway of narco-traffickers until it came under police control less than a year ago. The first Latin American and Jesuit pontiff arrived in Brazil mainly for the huge five-day Catholic gathering World Youth Day. (credit:YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby at the end of week general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican on June 19, 2013 . (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis (R) kisses a baby on July 14, 2013, at the end of his first Angelus prayer in front of his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, 40 kms southeast of Rome. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby on July 14, 2013, at the end of his first Angelus prayer in front of his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, 40 kms southeast of Rome. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives in St.Peter's Square at the Vatican for his weekly general audience, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (credit:(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter square at the Vatican, on June 26, 2013 . (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience, in St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. (credit:(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience, in St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 12, 2013. (credit:(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, for his weekly general audience, Wednesday, June 5, 2013. (credit:(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby in St Peter's square at the Vatican upon his arrival on June 5, 2013 for his weekly general audience. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby at St Peter's square at the Vatican upon his arrival on June 5, 2013 for his weekly general audience. (credit:FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The rain hasn't stopped Pope Francis. The 76-year-old pontiff, who lost part of a lung during his youth to an infection, got soaked Wednesday as he braved a brief spring shower to kiss babies and greet crowds at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. Zooming around the piazza in his open-air jeep, Francis had no umbrella or cover over him as he made his way through a sea of brightly colored umbrellas, happily stopping to caress and kiss babies handed up to him. (credit:AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby upon his arrival on May 26, 2013, outside of the church of Saints Elizabeth and Zachary, in Prime Porta, a suburb of Rome.The pope visited a Rome parish for the first time and will offer first communion to 16 local children, choosing a church on the outskirts of the city after his call for clergymen to take God's message to the 'fringes' of society. (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child on May 29, 2013 as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Image)
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In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis kisses a baby during his visit to the Mother Teresa Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity "Dono di Maria" (Gift from Mary) guest house, inside the Vatican, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. (credit:AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 15, 2013 . (credit:VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby after a canonization ceremony in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 12 2013. Pope Francis on Sunday gave the Catholic church new saints, including hundreds of 15th-century martyrs who were beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam, as he led his first canonization ceremony Sunday in a packed St. Peterís Square. Francis also gave Colombia its first saint: a nun who toiled as a teacher and spiritual guide to indigenous people in the 20th century. With Colombiaís president, Juan Manuel Santos, among the VIPS in a crowd of tens of thousands, the pope held out Laura of St. Catherine of Siena Montoya y Upegui as a potential source of inspiration, with her "example of harmony and reconciliationíí to that nationís peace process, attempted after decades-long conflict between rebels and government forces. (credit:(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino))
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Pope Francis (R) kisses a baby as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 15, 2013 . (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby after celebrating his first Palm Sunday Mass, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Pope Francis celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart, as tens of thousands joyfully waved olive branches and palm fronds. The square overflowed with some 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans eager to join the new pope at the start of solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity's most important day (credit:(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby after celebrating his first Palm Sunday Mass, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, March 24, 2013. Pope Francis celebrated his first Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, encouraging people to be humble and young at heart, as tens of thousands joyfully waved olive branches and palm fronds. The square overflowed with some 250,000 pilgrims, tourists and Romans eager to join the new pope at the start of solemn Holy Week ceremonies, which lead up to Easter, Christianity's most important day. (credit:(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino))
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Pope Francis kisses a child after departing the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Popemobile after arriving in Rio on July 22, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More than 1.5 million pilgrims are expected to join Pope Francis for his visit to the Catholic Church's World Youth Day celebrations. Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Brazil from July 22 to 28. (credit:(Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images))
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Pope Francis kisses a child on the popemobile on his way to the Guanabara Palace after his arrival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 22, 2013. Pope Francis landed in Brazil on Monday for his first overseas trip as pontiff to attend the international festival World Youth Day in Brazil, the world's biggest Catholic country. (credit:ARI VERSIANI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, southern Italy, Monday July 8, 2013. Pope Francis has arrived on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa to greet recently arrived migrants as yet another boatload came ashore carrying 162 Eritreans. Francis came to pray with survivors of the treacherous crossing from Africa and mourn those who have died trying. He flew Monday from Rome to Lampedusa's airport and was traveling by coast guard ship to the island's main port. (credit:AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Pope Francis blesses a child during his visit to the island of Lampedusa, a key destination of tens of thousands of would-be immigrants from Africa, on July 8, 2013. Pope Francis called for an end to 'indifference' to the plight of refugees on Monday on a visit to an Italian island where tens of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East first reach Europe. (credit: MARCELLO PATERNOSTRO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives on June 19, 2013 for the weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican. (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives on June 19, 2013 for the weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican. (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a boy on June 16, 2013 on St Peter's square at the Vatican during a mass. (credit:TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives on popemobile to celebrate the mass for 'Evangelium Vitae' Day at at St. Peter's Square on June 16, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. (credit:Giorgio Cosulich/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child on May 29, 2013 as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis is hugged by a girl after his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 15, 2013. (credit:VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child from the Popemobile at the end of a canonisation mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 12, 2013. The Pope led a mass on Sunday for candidates to sainthood Antonio Primaldo, Mother Laura Montoya and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala. (credit:FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child from the Popemobile at the end of a canonisation mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 12, 2013. The Pope led a mass on Sunday for candidates to sainthood Antonio Primaldo, Mother Laura Montoya and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala. (credit:FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
Pope Francis Kissing Babies(49 of59)
Pope Francis kisses a child from the Popemobile at the end of a canonisation mass in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 12, 2013. The Pope led a mass on Sunday for candidates to sainthood Antonio Primaldo, Mother Laura Montoya and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala. (credit:FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a young girl as he arrives on his popemobile for his weekly general audience on St Peter's Square at the Vatican on May 1, 2013. (credit:GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child at the end of his weekly general audience on St Peter's square on April 17, 2013 at the Vatican. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis kisses a child at the end of his weekly general audience on St Peter's square on April 17, 2013 at the Vatican. (credit:ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)
Pope Francis Kissing Babies(53 of59)
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - APRIL 03: Pope Francis kisses Johnny Oliver Sueeney an American baby from Virginia as he leaves St. Peter's square at the end of his weekly audience on April 3, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis delivered his catechism to a crowd of approximately 30,000 pilgrims packed into St Peter's Square. (credit:Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
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Pope Francis stops to kiss a baby as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday May 1, 2013. (credit:AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby as he is driven through the crowd with his popemobile in St. Peter's Square prior to the start of his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 10, 2013. (credit:AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
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Pope Francis kisses a baby after celebrating his first Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Pope Francis celebrated his first Easter Sunday Mass as pontiff in St. Peter's Square, packed by joyous pilgrims, tourists and Romans and bedecked by spring flowers. Wearing cream-colored vestments, Francis strode onto the esplanade in front of St. Peter's Basilica and took his place at an altar set up under a white canopy. (credit:(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia))
Pope Francis Kissing Babies(57 of59)
Pope Francis kisses a baby as he is driven through the crowd with his popemobile in St. Peter's Square prior to the start of his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 10, 2013. (credit: (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino))
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Pope Francis kisses a baby handed to him as he is driven through the crowd during his general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (credit:(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini))
Pope Francis Kissing Babies(59 of59)
Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives on June 19, 2013 for the weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican.
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