The Pope wants couples to avoid having more children than they can bring up properly, a Vatican panel has been told.

Environmentalist Peter Raven made the comment at a workshop on biodiversity, which discussed Catholic Church attitudes toward environmental issues.

Pope Francis has previously said avoiding pregnancy is not an 'absolute evil', but the church remains unwavering in its opposition to artificial birth control.

Pope Francis has previously stated that avoiding pregnancy 'is not an absolute evil'

Dr Raven stated, LifeSiteNews reports: 'We need at some point to have a limited number of people which is why Pope Francis and his three most recent predecessors have always argued that you should not have more children than you can bring up properly.'

But he continued: 'We do not endorse any of the artificial birth control [methods] that the Church does not endorse.'

Dr Raven stated, according to the site's account of the workshop, that 'we need a more limited number of people in the world'.

At the same Biological Extinction workshop, a paper was presented by Dr Paul Ehrlich, who argued that Catholic teachings had resulted in 'collective failure' to reduce the world's population.

Dr Peter Raven told a Vatican panel that the pope wants people to have fewer children in order to lessen the damage being done to the planet

In a press conference onboard a flight last year, Pope Francis said abortion is a crime and 'absolutely evil', but he added: 'Paul VI, a great man, in a difficult situation in Africa, permitted nuns to use contraceptives in cases of rape.'

He later stated that 'avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil'.

The Pope said: 'In certain cases, as in this one, or in the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear.'

Following Pope Francis' remarks, Dr Melissa Moschella, a philosophy professor at The Catholic University of America, told the Catholic News Agency this did not amount to a change in policy.

She said that for Catholics, sex is an act in a relationship that would be fulfilled by having children together, but added: 'In the case of rape, there has been no voluntary sex act on the part of the woman.'