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The Pope Was Right All Along (Pope Paul VI) Secular sources now agree with him!
CE.com ^ | January 11, 2013 | Russell Shaw

Posted on 01/11/2013 7:53:05 PM PST by Salvation

The Pope Was Right All Along

Russell Shaw

by Russell Shaw on January 11, 2013 · 

The disruptive results for individuals and society spawned by the revolution in attitudes and behavior regarding sex, marriage, family, and childbearing that erupted a half-century ago have become too obvious to ignore. These things were predictable–in fact, some people actually predicted them from the start–but by now their impact has grown so painfully apparent that even secular voices are being raised in alarm.

The problems are increasingly visible in the United States. They include an aging population with fewer young workers to support the elderly, along with a disturbingly high incidence of disabilities among children born to parents who put off having them until their 30s and 40s and then, in many instances, resorted to drugs or reproductive technologies to achieve pregnancy.

Between 2007 and 2010, the U.S. birthrate dropped 8%, to the lowest level since 1920, when reliable data first became available. The lifetime average of 1.9 children per woman is below the replacement rate of 2.1–the number of children needed to keep population level. Granted, some of this is due to the recession but some reflects longer-term trends.

Pope Paul VI (r. 1963-1978)

Pope Paul VI (r. 1963-1978)

Religious sources, some of them anyway, began warning about such things a long time ago. In his 1968 encyclical condemning contraception, Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI spoke of “insurmountable limits” to what people can rightly do to and with their bodies, and of the personal and social imperatives requiring that those limits be respected. The Pope was ignored when he wasn’t laughed at. But he was right.

Now, in their own way, secular sources have begun to make points very much like those made by Paul VI and a few others. As fresh evidence, consider recent articles in two very different opinion journals–the neoconservative Weekly Standard and the liberal New Republic. Both are required reading for people who want to know the dismal demographic future that, barring a miracle, lies just ahead.

Jonathan V. Last focuses in the Standard on the crisis in marriage. To put it simply, large numbers of Americans just aren’t getting married any more.

Up until 1970, Last writes, the percentage who were married at some point in their lives never fell much below 93%. But now 67% of men and 57% of women in the prime childbearing years between 20 and 34 have never been married, and more than half of voting age Americans are single.

Over in the New Republic, Judith Shulevitz, the magazine’s science editor and an older mother herself, notes that the age of first-time mothers rose from 21.5 in 1970 to 25.4 in 2010.

As the age of mothers has risen, birth defects also have increased among the children of older women who postponed pregnancy and then turned to technology to catch up. (Lest you wonder: the incidence of birth defects also is higher among children of older men.) Shulevitz suggests doctors get busy spreading the word “that tinkering with reproductive material at the very earliest stages of a fetus’s growth may have molecular effects we’re only beginning to understand.”

Jonathan Last sees two large explanations for what has happened in recent decades: “the waning of religion in American life” and the shattering of the “iron triangle” that previously linked sex, marriage and childbearing. No doubt that is so. As Pope Paul VI said back in 1968, “The honest practice of regulation of birth demands…that husband and wife acquire and possess solid convictions concerning the true values of life and of the family.” That was necessary then, and it’s just as necessary today.



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholic; contraception; contraceptive; contraceptives; family; humanaevitae; ipp; marriage; moralabsolutes; plannedparenthood; pope; pp; prolife; thepill
**As the age of mothers has risen, birth defects also have increased among the children of older women who postponed pregnancy and then turned to technology to catch up. (Lest you wonder: the incidence of birth defects also is higher among children of older men.)**

Is there a lesson to be learned here?

1 posted on 01/11/2013 7:53:09 PM PST by Salvation
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To: nickcarraway; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; ArrogantBustard; Catholicguy; RobbyS; marshmallow; ...

Catholic Ping!


2 posted on 01/11/2013 7:55:44 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: All
The Pope Was Right All Along (Pope Paul VI) Secular sources now agree with him!
'Humanae Vitae' author Pope Paul VI moves toward sainthood
How Protestants Learned to Love the Pill
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The Campaign for Humanae Vitae
Bachelorettes and Humanae Vitae
Contraceptives and the Environment - What the Pill Is Doing to Our Water Supply
Melinda Gates: I’m Catholic and contraception is not controversial
Catholics Urged to Imitate St. Thomas More in Contraception Battle
Essays for Lent: Contraception

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Pastors Preach Against Contraception From Pulpit
Catholics and Contraception: Boston, 1965
Abortion, Contraception and the Church Fathers (Catholic teaching unchanged for 2000 yrs)
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6 Reasons Why Contraception is Sinful and Contrary to God's Will
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Paul VI: “danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities ...”
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Letter from Archbishop John G. Vlazny on the matter of freedom of conscience and decisions by HHS

Bishop Olmsted's Letter to Catholics [Catholic Caucus]
Liberty for the Amish & Quakers but not Catholics. . .
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Phoenix bishop (Olmstead): defy feds on birth control
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Responsible Parenthood in a Birth Control Culture, Part One [Open]
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Contraception v. Natural Family Planning — Part 5 of 6 [Open]
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Contraception and the Language of the Body — Part 3 of 6 [Open]
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Contraception and Cultural Chaos — Part 1 of 6 [Open]
Priests still suffering from effects of Humanae Vitae dissenters, Vatican cardinal says (Must read!)
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3 posted on 01/11/2013 8:01:14 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation; Reaganite Republican; Clintons Are White Trash; HerrBlucher; mgist; raptor22; ...
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4 posted on 01/11/2013 8:17:49 PM PST by narses
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5 posted on 01/11/2013 8:18:26 PM PST by narses
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To: Salvation

Shoot, many Americans were saying the same thing.


6 posted on 01/11/2013 8:35:59 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
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To: Salvation

“Is there a lesson to be learned here?”

Of course! A man should wait until he’s 96 years old, and a woman 60 years old, to have children!
http://now.msn.com/ramjeet-raghav-becomes-worlds-oldest-father-at-96


7 posted on 01/11/2013 8:36:09 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Salvation
a disturbingly high incidence of disabilities among children born to parents who put off having them until their 30s and 40s and then, in many instances, resorted to drugs or reproductive technologies to achieve pregnancy.

Watch it, Mr. Shaw. In the absence of contraceptive use/sterilization, a very substantial percentage of married women would be having babies in their late 30s and their 40s, because that's how an unaltered, healthy reproductive system works.

One of my friends in the "late 40s with an infant" club recently sent out a link to a study suggesting that women who have been steadily having children experience menopause later than those who have not. Our bodies want the species to survive, even when our minds don't.

8 posted on 01/12/2013 3:31:38 AM PST by Tax-chick (Please explain how my being in a fuss would help the situation.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

I’m not buying that the mother is 60. She probably doesn’t know when she was born. The latest (for a woman) verified natural conception involved a 56-year-old mother.


9 posted on 01/12/2013 3:33:34 AM PST by Tax-chick (Please explain how my being in a fuss would help the situation.)
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To: Running On Empty

marking


10 posted on 01/12/2013 8:04:36 AM PST by Running On Empty (The three sorriest words: "It's too late")
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To: Tax-chick
Good stuff there, tax-chick. People don't realize that it's the contraceptives that cause the birth defects, etc.
11 posted on 01/12/2013 8:35:24 AM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Salvation

A woman in her 40s who hasn’t used contraceptives, hasn’t had an abortion, hasn’t contracted an STD, etc. is nearly as likely to conceive and safely carry a baby to term as the same woman in her 20s. It’s true that the woman in her 40s has a higher likelihood of a baby with Down’s Syndrome.

However, the tone of the article is that births to older mothers are (a) a new phenomenon and (b) a problem. The implication is that, at some point in life, it is simply necessary that couples use contraception or be “fixed,” in order to ... not traumatize the sensibilities of people who find older parents or people with Down’s or “too many children” distasteful, I suppose.


12 posted on 01/12/2013 9:34:27 AM PST by Tax-chick (Please explain how my being in a fuss would help the situation.)
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To: Salvation
Good stuff there, tax-chick. People don't realize that it's the contraceptives that cause the birth defects, etc.

Contraceptives are also linked to increased cancer rates; however, it remains politically incorrect to publicize widely such information.

Thanks for posting the article.

13 posted on 01/12/2013 3:07:10 PM PST by DBeers (†)
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To: DBeers

You are so welcome. When will the world realize that all this birth control/contraception is harmful to all of us — let alone the couple practicing it?


14 posted on 01/13/2013 2:27:12 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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