Posted on 02/09/2010 3:54:56 PM PST by wagglebee
NEW YORK, February 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As nations around the world are beginning to feel the effects of plummeting birth rates, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations has stressed that population growth is the key to overcoming poverty. Speaking before the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore said, “too often population growth is viewed as the cause of poverty whereas it is a means of overcoming it, for only within the work force can the solution for poverty be found.”
The archbishop explained: “where economic growth rates have declined, the answers lie not in trying to close society to others and pushing for population decline but rather in creating a society which is open to and encourages life.” He added, “Promoting life and the family and finding ways to integrate the contribution of all people will allow societies to realize their full potential and achieve development.”
While population control was pushed at the Copenhagen summit on climate change and is still funded in the billions by the world’s elite, population control measures have largely been discredited as a valid means of reducing poverty.
University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan recently spoke of the “now discredited theory that poverty in the Third World is based on overpopulation,” in comments to the National Post. “I don’t think any serious scholar believes that anymore,” he added.
The Vatican push against population control measures was raised by the pope last year. In his World Day of Peace message for January 1, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI deplored the "international campaigns afoot to reduce birth-rates, sometimes using methods that respect neither the dignity of the woman, nor the right of parents to choose responsibly how many children to have; graver still, these methods often fail to respect even the right to life."
Smashing any appeal to undertake population control in the name of alleviating poverty, the pope added: "The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings."
In his message, the Pope brought demographic evidence to defend his views. "Nor must it be forgotten that, since the end of the Second World War, the world's population has grown by four billion, largely because of certain countries that have recently emerged on the international scene as new economic powers, and have experienced rapid development specifically because of the large number of their inhabitants. Moreover, among the most developed nations, those with higher birth-rates enjoy better opportunities for development.
"In other words, population is proving to be an asset, not a factor that contributes to poverty," the pope concluded.
Very true!
Pro-Life Ping
Ping for your lists.
Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.
FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
Some folks heads will explode on this one LOL. But wealth is built through the velocity of money. The more often a single dollar (or whatever currency) becomes income and spending the greater the wealth.
Very, very true. Declining birthrate = no workers, no productivity, no customers, no nothing.
I thought these clowns said that having humans caused global warming.....now they say they actually like humans.......what phonies....like Prince Charles.....who follows these frauds? Not me.....
Well, you thought wrong. The Catholic Church NEVER suggested that human life was the cause of ANYTHING and NEVER supported any form of population control.
What clowns are you talking about? The Catholic Church has never said that humans cause global warming, and in fact the Pope’s last statement on this said that human beings are the pinnacle of creation and that any “ecology” must bear this in mind.
Prince Charles is not a Catholic, and in fact, I’m not even sure he’s sane...
obviously he hasn’t seen the effects of a high population in Ca :( bad schools,bad roads hey just like Mexico,el salvador,Africa etc...
LOL.
What clowns? Are you referring to the Vatican?
He was challenged by drugstore paperback amateurs like Paul Ehrlich, but they failed to make a dent. Reality is tougher than liberal spin.
Tell me a society where the birth rate is allot higher than the replacement rate and that society IS already, or IS becoming wealthier? There are none.
The only two nations with extremely huge populations, India and China have both increased their gross, and per-capita wealth, from very great rates of poverty at the same time they have trimmed the rate of population growth.
It is one thing to acknowledge that a very low birth rate is not helpful to sustained economic growth in the long run.
That does not translate, morally or economically into the opposite - that a very high birth rate is naturally positive, all the time in all cases.
I am not offering these insights as promotion of any nation’s social methodology regarding contraception and certainly not to render any support for abortion.
But there is some distance between the categorical image presented by the Vatican - that population growth is inherently and always a good (it in fact depends on the context), and the realistic morality of reasonable methods of contraception, outside of abortion, when a family’s three existing children are already starving.
Haiti and Bangladesh certainly support this contention.
for only within the work force can the solution for poverty be found
Wrongthink pope, the government creates all employment. The private economy is built on greed.
Population density has NOTHING to do with a country’s wealth or poverty, but don’t let that stop you from pushing your agenda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_density
Yes, I’m well aware you agree with the whole Malthusian death agenda, now you have a president who agrees.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.