Posted on 10/17/2001 12:06:45 PM PDT by ex-snook
The collapsing birthrate in the developed world
By John F. Kobler
A few years ago one of our Passionist retreat house directors told me he was thinking of using “The Culture of Death” as the theme for the forthcoming year’s retreat talks. However sympathetic I was to this important theme of John Paul II, I told him frankly he didn’t have the horses! At that time I did not think the generality of preachers had a realistic grasp of the complexities of this problem nor a comprehension of the entrenched cultural opposition to the Church’s teachings on sexual morality. I am happy to say that the situation is now changing. A large segment of the secular culture is becoming aware of a serious demographic crisis, especially in the developed world. I would like to list some of the new data and insights reinforcing this changing outlook.
Peter F. Drucker, as you know, is the leading management theorist in the U. S. One of his latest books is Management Challenges for the 21st Century (NY: HarperBusiness, 1999). His second chapter (pp. 44-50) starts out: “The most important single new certainty — if only because there is no precedent for it in all of history — is the collapsing birthrate in the developed world.” Drucker lists the general figures for Western and Central Europe (e. g., the mostly Catholic countries of Portugal, Spain, Southern France, and Italy), and Japan. All of these nations are drifting toward collective suicide by the end of the 21st century. Italy is the nation at present most given to contraceptive practices!
In his book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1996), Samuel P. Huntington offers some comparative population growth figures between Christianity and Islam (pp. 65-66) and concludes:
In the long run, however, Mohammed wins out. Christianity spreads primarily by conversion. Islam by conversion and reproduction. The percentage of Christians in the world peaked at about 30 percent in the 1980s, leveled off, is now declining, and will probably approximate about 25 percent of the world population by 2025. As a result of their extremely high rates of population growth (see chapter 5), the proportion of Muslims in the world will continue to increase dramatically, amounting to 20 percent of the world’s population about the turn of the century, surpassing the number of Christians some years later, and probably accounting for about 30 percent of the world’s population by 2025.
It is good to recall that Islam today is going through a great religious resurgence of a virulent anti-Western nature, and in some areas of a violent anti-Catholic nature. In chapter 12, “The West, Civilizations, and Civilization,” Huntington has some sobering and instructive observations on the need for “Renewal of the West” and the problems posed by multi-culturalism in the United States.
I am aware that the above sources are contested on occasion. Therefore, I recommend an even more authoritative source: Replacement Migration: Is it A Solution to Declining and Aging Populations?, published by the Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat (ESA/P/WP.160, 21 March 2000, English only). This lengthy brochure (pp. viii, 143) studies the dwindling populations of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America, Europe, and the European Union. In a quite clinical and antiseptic way this study sums up the explosive challenges facing this collapsing birthrate (p. 95):
The new challenges being brought about by declining and aging populations will require objective, thorough and comprehensive reassessments of many established economic, social and political policies and programs. Such reassessments will need to incorporate a long-term perspective. Critical issues to be addressed in those reassessments would include:
In the light of the above demographic facts I believe that since 1968 Catholic theologians and moralists who have endorsed contraception have done a distinct disservice to the magisterium of the Church and the moral fibber of Catholics in general. More and more it is becoming evident that such theologians are isolating themselves from grassroots Catholic concerns and are largely talking to themselves in their university enclaves. A fine article by William Dean may be found in Criterion, a publication of The Divinity School of The University of Chicago, vol. 39:1 (Winter, 2000) 24-29, under the title, “The Voluntary Decline of Public Theologians.” Dean’s remarks aimed primarily at Protestant theologians apply in large part to the liberal elite of Catholic university theologians and moralists in the U. S.:
. . . the academic public intellectuals continued to comply with the university mindset and with their disciplinary colleagues around the country. What did it cost them when they glorified Mao Tse Tung or Che Guevera and allowed the university curriculum to be driven first by the counterculture and then by academic fashions? They did not need to depend on the public for their jobs or reputations, as the neoconservatives did. In fact, their jobs usually became safer and their reputations stronger when they shocked the public and belittled its patriotism. So, naturally, they felt little public pressure to reconsider their fundamental assumptions.
I know of only one Catholic demographer, Michel Schooyans, Professor of the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, who has grappled with the theme of “A World in Crisis,” and pointed out the present-day context and implications of the collapsing birthrate in the Western world. I became interested in Schooyans’ works because the crisis of the modern world is the larger context within which I view the pastoral rethinking of Vatican II. I must admit that, while I may have appreciated the philosophical antecedents of these problems, their concrete expression in Communism and Nazism, and Third World poverty problems, Schooyans opened my mind to the Totalitarian Trend of our Liberal Culture. Schooyans’ vision of the modern world is shaped by a deep Catholic faith and a profound scholarship. His ideas would give depth to any preacher of renewal today.
Three of Schooyans’ books have been translated into English: i. e., The Totalitarian Trend of Liberalism, The Gospel Confronting World Disorder, and The Demographic Crash: From Fatalism to Hope (forthcoming). All three books have been translated by Fr. John H. Miller, C.S.C, S.T.D., editor of the Social Justice Review in St. Louis. The books may be obtained from the Central Bureau, CCVA, 3835 Westminster Place, St. Louis, MO 63108. One of the outstanding qualities of Schooyans’ books is his familiarity with the data provided by international organizations (e. g., the UN) and governmental sources (e. g., U. S.). He also displays a profound acquaintance with the social encyclicals of the Holy See.
I would like to conclude by drawing attention to two issues deriving from the widespread contraceptive practices in the world today. Schooyans points out that much of the radical feminist movement is a modern version of the Marxist theme of class warfare. Lastly, Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University, has a powerful book, The Decline of Males (NY: Golden Books, 1999). Tiger attributes the massive changes in society between men and women to effective contraception, the cause of today’s “gender wars.”
I close in a lighter vein: due to the decline of males on campus a number of colleges have designated their male applicants as the new candidates for affirmative action!
My post addressed the ambiance of the article and thread that there was some kind of duty to overpopulate the planet, not abortion.You are spinning, spinning, spinning rapidly out of control using loaded phrases etc. You use words like over populate, please. Your kind has been screaming about over population for a couple billion people now. What is the current prediction on when the world will collapse? You over population folks are as bad as the Bible prophecy folks predicting the end of the world.So, I ask you -- are you proposing that women have a duty? Something that usurps their freedoms in this society? Something that trumps their free will, their freedom of choice, their inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness?
As to trumping free will, it is my impression that this article and the posts following it decry the moral decline in this part of the world, not asking for more laws. No one is demanding that a law be passed regulating minimum family sizes. As for
Maybe we should have some street enforcers, like the Taliban, and any woman not pregnant gets beaten?Take your disgusting propaganda elsewhere.
patent +AMDG
People who do NOT care about their kids' education have many children AND put them into poor school situations (i.e. they don't homeschool them; don't live in more expensive areas w/ better schools; don't pay private school tuitions.)Excuse me? Care to prove this? Or is it backed up by nothing more then ikanakattara’s biases? Some folks don't have many choices about where they school their kids, your assumptions need help.
patent +AMDG
You are dancing. Should laws require 'me' to support me's children even if me doen't want too?
Would you have accepted the responsiblity of the soldiers on D-Day who gave up not only 'pursuit of happiness' but their own lives? Come to think of it, they would be better off without you - you'd head for the nearest 'legal' hole.
I'd laugh, but I know you said that with a straight face.
Yup. Wait until the male version of the birth control pill comes out. That'll even the score, but the birth rates will plummet even more.
the germans have a lot of turks. the english have a lot of arabs, as do the french.
israel and japan are the most racist. the japanese dislike other asians and other races. if a european enters a public bath, many japanese will leave.
Maybe men who want families could import a foreign bride who wants a family and not a 'local' who wants a career as chief teller, stock broker or even legal eagle judge.
Some women do not look down on the career as a mother as unimportant. At least women who become mothers can say something on their deathbed other than recite the deals they closed.
So, when we are discussing overall impacts to society from a multitude of sources, one of them being that MEN and WOMEN are CHOOSING in this society to have fewer children, and we are looking at solutions, such as WOMEN having more children, we should just forego the whole idea of MEN and WOMEN CHOOSING? And we should just concern ourselves with some nebulous, subjective, minority-of-you-selected overall goals for society?
Hmmmm…. This sounds strangely like SOCIALISM, comrade.
Fact: Men can't become mothers. Agree? Fact: A society in which the average woman has less than 2 children in her lifetime is destined for extinction in the long term, unless that fertility rate increases. Agree? Sorry if you feel like that's some kind of affront to your delicate personal dignity and right to self-fulfillment. It seems like pretty basic biology and math to me.
Again, on whom are you imposing the “overall societal need for population growth”, and on which men are you imposing the cost of this little exercise in socialism, since their wives will have to stop working in order to become the baby making machines you propose, and they are going to be the ones incurring the costs of additional children?
Is your idea any different than the Chinese’s idea to limit the number of children per couple?
overshadowing us in the next 50 years??????? What do you mean? They already are more populous than us. And Corporate America seems to be bent on giving every last one of them a work visa, putting Americans out of work.
While we've been aborting our children by the millions, these cultures have experienced a population explosion. We need to turn back to the nuclear family if we hope to survive. But no--I wouldn't *force* you to do something you don't want to.
Again, nice idea. But on whom are you placing this requirement to get back to the nuclear family? I’m speaking not just of women, but also the men, who will now be required to work, what, 80 hours a week, and 2 jobs, in order to support a non-working wife and more kids. Again, this nebulous, society-engineering stuff y’all are proposing gets me just as nervous as when the dim dems do it.
Oh, my. Isn’t that interesting? Y’all are all becoming little social engineers, just like the dim dems.
Next thing you know, y’all will be calling the election a fraud and sporting Al Gore “shooting star” t-shirts … guess he found out what really happens to shooting stars …. Aaaaahhhhhh!!!! The atmosphere!!!! … [acknowledgements to Discovery Channel].
I am reminded of Jack Nicholson’s line in “The Witches of Eastwick” …. About how marriage is great for the man, lousy for the woman, and how a married man goes around complaining about making love to a dead woman, and he’s the one that killed her.
Bring back some rights for fathers, and perhaps men might start thinking of starting families again. But as long as our courts are headed by female judges who live to shaft fathers, don't be surprised if more and more men decide to not become fathers.
Rights for fathers? Like what rights? My parents were divorced in the early 1970s and my dad got custody.
P.S. Are men choosing to NOT become fathers because of some subjective “we have no rights” nonsense? Or are men choosing to NOT become fathers simply because they are having way too much fun NOT being a father?
P.P.S And, if you the social engineers, i.e., wanna-be-dim-dims on this thread, decide to impose their vision of order, are we going to just have a whole bunch of single moms, since fathers won’t choose to become fathers? Going to raid a sperm bank, or just conscript bodily fluids from the citizenry?
My kind? Really? And what kind is that, exactly? Do be specific.
And the next time you’re in a long line at the supermarket, or the video store, or the amusement park, or the putt-putt golf, or the next time you’re on a Beltway around some big city, or the next time it takes an hour just to drive 1 block past Tyson’s Corner Mall, why don’t you look at the mass of people and cars, and rejoice! Sing hallelujah! Praise the Lord for the traffic jam!
What a maroon.
What is the current prediction on when the world will collapse?
When you get off your very high horse.
You over population folks are as bad as the Bible prophecy folks predicting the end of the world.
Really? Include Poppy Bush in that league too …. His zero-population growth penchant caused a huge falling out with the Vatican. He had many enemies at the Vatican for that belief alone.
As to trumping free will, it is my impression that this article and the posts following it decry the moral decline in this part of the world, not asking for more laws. No one is demanding that a law be passed regulating minimum family sizes.
So, you advocate passing laws to correct the moral decline? You advocate imposing your moral vision (or whoever’s) on women and men, who have chosen to live otherwise in this free society? Osama, dude, we have found you at last!
As for Maybe we should have some street enforcers, like the Taliban, and any woman not pregnant gets beaten? Take your disgusting propaganda elsewhere.
No, I think I’ll keep it right here in your face.
Should laws require ME to support what you have spawned? That’s what’s happening now for those men who CHOOSE not to support what they have spawned.
Would you have accepted the responsiblity of the soldiers on D-Day who gave up not only 'pursuit of happiness' but their own lives? Come to think of it, they would be better off without you - you'd head for the nearest 'legal' hole.
You don’t want an answer. You’ve already got your little fantasy whirling around in your head, and reality doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of breaking through that self-imposed delirium!
And I meant eclipsing us in terms of snuffing out Judeo-Christianity, and it hasn't been done yet--give it 50 years or so and it will, because people like you disdain my belief system [the one that holds personal repsonsibility in high esteem], and other people don't have the guts to stand up to people like you who only give a damn about thelselves. When Judeo-Christianity is gone you can have your pick of morally lassaiz faire pagan utopias--hope you enjoy it.
Snuffing out? And just how are they going to do that? Are they going to forcibly convert you? Your children? Are you saying that they are going to just all come over here on their WORK VISAS and breed you out? Define "snuffing out".
and it hasn't been done yet--give it 50 years or so and it will, because people like you disdain my belief system [the one that holds personal repsonsibility in high esteem],
Really? And just how do I hold personal responsibility in low esteem? Justify your position.
and other people don't have the guts to stand up to people like you who only give a damn about thelselves.
People like me? Really? Do define "people like me". And do attempt to be more specific than just --- oooooo the bad people.
When Judeo-Christianity is gone you can have your pick of morally lassaiz faire pagan utopias--hope you enjoy it.
Where is it going? In 50 years, Israel will be comprised primarily of those of Arab descent. In 50 years, if Corporate America keeps up its WORK VISA pace, the USA will be comprised primarily of 3rd worlders.
Now, how am I responsible for this?
P.S. What the heck do you think America's obsession with Santy Claus is? Non paganism? What the heck do you think your children are going to be doing in a few short weeks? The feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-en) is a PAGAN festival. THE WITCH'S NEW YEAR!! Hello? Our Christian nation calls it Halloween.
What a complete maroon.
What a maroon.You don’t rebut a single thing I said, just spew insults. Who’s the maroon [sic]?
LOL. The best you can do?What is the current prediction on when the world will collapse?When you get off your very high horse.
This is supposed to prove what? That Poppy Bush is as clueless as you are? I’m not a fan of his, so I could care less what he thinks.You over population folks are as bad as the Bible prophecy folks predicting the end of the world.Really? Include Poppy Bush in that league too …. His zero-population growth penchant caused a huge falling out with the Vatican. He had many enemies at the Vatican for that belief alone.
You really don’t grasp simple concepts do you? Is passing a law the only possible solution you can see? It certainly seems that way, I haven't mentioned passing any laws for anything, yet you keep squacking about my wanting to pass laws. No, I don’t advocate passing laws to correct the moral decline, I advocate individuals voluntarily choosing to act in a moral fashion.As to trumping free will, it is my impression that this article and the posts following it decry the moral decline in this part of the world, not asking for more laws. No one is demanding that a law be passed regulating minimum family sizes.So, you advocate passing laws to correct the moral decline?
You advocate imposing your moral vision (or whoever’s) on women and men, who have chosen to live otherwise in this free society? Osama, dude, we have found you at last!Take your disgusting propaganda elsewhere. You can’t debate with straight up arguments, so you spin straw men, spinning, spinning, spinning rapidly out of control. I have not once advocated imposing my moral vision on the unwilling. I challenge you to prove otherwise. Your propaganda is laid bare, prove it or go away.
Where it will be clearly refuted, time after time. You have nothing but insults and fabrications to offer. Typical for your kind.As for Maybe we should have some street enforcers, like the Taliban, and any woman not pregnant gets beaten? Take your disgusting propaganda elsewhere.No, I think I’ll keep it right here in your face.
patent +AMDG
Translation for those following along at home, she doesn’t dare give an answer. At least one that is honest. So she doesn't give one. At least she doesn't lie about it, I suppose.Would you have accepted the responsiblity of the soldiers on D-Day who gave up not only 'pursuit of happiness' but their own lives? Come to think of it, they would be better off without you - you'd head for the nearest 'legal' hole.You don’t want an answer. You’ve already got your little fantasy whirling around in your head, and reality doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of breaking through that self-imposed delirium!
P.S. What the heck do you think America's obsession with Santy Claus is? Non paganism? What the heck do you think your children are going to be doing in a few short weeks? The feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-en) is a PAGAN festival. THE WITCH'S NEW YEAR!! Hello? Our Christian nation calls it Halloween.Is that what your coven told you?
Halloween
by Father Scott Archer
Compiled from Peoria Diocesan information and other sourcesThe question often arises about the celebration of Halloween by Catholics. Is it, for instance, "pagan" to dress up and go about as ghosts and goblins? The question often comes up because many modern Christians (mostly non-Catholic ones) believe Halloween has something to do with worshipping the devil and participating in witchcraft. The truth is, the origins of Halloween are rooted deeply in the theology and popular customs of Catholics.
It is a revision of actual history to say our modern celebration of Halloween has origins in Druid customs. It is true that the ancient Celts celebrated a minor feast on October 31st, but the fact is they celebrated a festival on the last day of most every month.
First of all, the celebration of Halloween; i.e., people dressing up in costumes, going to parties, and "begging" for candy, is not un-Catholic.
Halloween falls on October 31st because the Feast of All Saints or "All Hallows" falls on November 1st. The feast in honor of all the saints used to be celebrated on May 13th, but Pope Gregory III, in 731, moved it to November 1st, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter's in Rome. This feast spread throughout the world.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the powerful monastery of Cluny in France, added a celebration on November 2nd. This was a day of prayer for the souls of all the faithful departed. Therefore, the Church had a feast of the saints and those in Purgatory. It was the Irish Catholics who came up with the idea to somehow remember those souls who did not live by the Faith in this life. It became customary for these Irish to bang on pots and pans on All Hallow's Eve to let the damned know they were not forgotten. In Ireland, then, ALL the dead came to be remembered. This, however, is still not exactly like our celebration of Halloween. On Halloween we also dress up in costumes.
This practice arose in France during the 14th and 15th centuries. During the horrible bubonic plague, the black death, Europe lost half of her population. Artists depicted this on walls to remind us of our own mortality. These pictures and representations are known as the "Dance of Death" or "The Dance Macabre." These figures were commonly painted on cemetary walls and showed the devil leading a daisy chain of people into the tomb. Sometimes the dance was re-enacted on All Soul's Day as a living tableau, with people dressed up as the dead. But the French dressed up on All Souls, not Halloween; and the Irish, who celebrated Halloween, did not dress up.
The two were brought together in the colonies of North America during the 18th century, when Irish and French Catholics began to intermarry. Thus the two celebrations became mingled, and we began dressing up on Halloween. It is, as we can see, a very "American" holiday but Catholics as well.
"Trick-or-Treating" is a very odd addition to Halloween. It is the most American aspect of the holiday, and is the (unwilling) contribution of English Catholics.
Guy Fawkes Day became a great celebration against Catholics in England. It celebrated the day the plot to blow up Parliament and King James I was discovered. This was on November 5, 1605. Guy Fawkes was the rather reckless man guarding the gunpowder. He was arrested and hanged. During these times of persecution of the Catholic Church bands of revelers would wear masks and visit Catholics in the night demanding they be given cakes and beer.
Guy Fawkes Day arrived in the American colonies with the first English settlers. Old King James had long been forgotten, but "Trick-or-Treating" was too much fun to give up. Eventually, it moved to the Irish/French Catholic masquerade. This practice of "Trick-or-Treating" was simply moved to coincide with the Catholic celebration involving dressing up.
I believe Halloween can still serve the purpose of reminding us about Hell and how to avoid it. Halloween is also a day to prepare us to remember those who have gone before us in faith, those already in Heaven, and those still suffering in Purgatory. The next time someone claims Halloween is a cruel trick to lure our children into devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of Halloween and let them know about its Catholic roots and significance.
What a complete maroon.You said it, but your aim was off.
patent
So does the Taliban. And your proposal is different from theirs, how?
You can’t debate with straight up arguments, so you spin straw men, spinning, spinning, spinning rapidly out of control.
From your earlier post: Your kind has been screaming about over population for a couple billion people now. ...What is the current prediction on when the world will collapse? ...You over population folks are as bad as the Bible prophecy folks predicting the end of the world.
You appear to be experiencing some projection there.
I have not once advocated imposing my moral vision on the unwilling. I challenge you to prove otherwise. Your propaganda is laid bare, prove it or go away.
From your current post: I advocate individuals voluntarily choosing to act in a moral fashion.
This moral fashion is, of course, in your image? Q.E.D.
What a maroon. - quote from Bugs Bunny.
What an unhumorous maroon.
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