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Posted on 05/24/2006 6:47:17 AM PDT by NYer
Some Canadians' noses are out of joint after Pope Benedict had the audacity to criticize our nation in front of the world.
The pontiff's beef?
Our low birthrate, which Benedict attributes to the absence of religion in our lives.
His words have been met so far with little more than a chorus of grumbles and cries to "mind your own business."
The Pope blames our woes on our "secular" status, which simply means Canada's population is turning away from organized religion.
How far? Just look at the reaction to Prime Minister Stephen Harper closing a speech with the words: "God bless Canada."
It's hard to believe that could offend anyone. After all, he's not beseeching any particular religion's god to bestow good fortune upon our country.
But, judging from the negative reaction these days to the words God, religion and church, you'd think he was uttering an obscenity.
According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadians who practise no religion sat at about 19% in 2004, compared to 12% in 1985.
Fair enough. We live in a free country, where no one is forced to believe anything they don't wish to believe. No one could argue against that.
The drawback is that organized religion once provided a foundation for our moral standards and a model for good behaviour. As its impact on our society wanes, it is replaced by an ambiguous set of rules.
Personal gratification moves toward the top of the list. The '60s slogan "if it feels good, do it," has become the mantra for an entire society.
Many politicians, even if they hold deep religious convictions themselves, are reluctant to place themselves in the line of fire by suggesting a nation's success runs far deeper than the employment rate or income levels.
Fortunately, Pope Benedict is bound by no such constraints.
In fact, stirring things up is part of his job description.
That's what he was doing when he urged Canada's Roman Catholic bishops to preach "with passion."
Like the man he claims as his Saviour, Benedict is obviously on a mission.
He recently suggested a lack of true love was behind an increase in failed marriages and a decrease in birthrates across the developed world.
It's a message our politically correct society might not want to hear, but it is one that bears closer scrutiny.
At first glance, our diminishing birthrate appears just another manifestation of modern life, which offers us choices and benefits unknown to previous generations.
The trouble is, if our birthrate continues to diminish, or even remains steady at close to record low levels, it will begin to threaten our nation's survival.
Even immigration isn't filling the void -- despite the fact we welcome more newcomers than just about any nation.
The foundation of our society will crumble around us without enough fresh blood to replenish our population.
It's interesting so much debate is devoted to the potential impact of global warming, while this more fundamental threat goes virtually ignored.
The mainstream argument runs that everyone is free -- there's that word again -- to make their own choices about parenthood.
The larger question is why our society as a whole has come to place so little value on children when they mean so much to the continuation of our nation's viability.
It's not simply a matter of making it easier for parents to afford the cost of raising children -- even though that would be a good start.
Benedict and other religious leaders can only try to change our society's attitude that places a higher value on luxury cars, estate homes and sun destination vacations than on a noisy house full of energetic, laughing children.
If they don't succeed, the eventual economic repercussions may do the job for them.
New figures by Statistics Canada project there'll be more seniors over age 65 than children under 15 by 2015. By 2031, the number of seniors could be double the number of children.
When that happens, who'll take up the jobs needed to keep our economy going to support this mob of oldsters?
Where will the health-care providers come from needed to keep these masses of seniors healthy and happy?
Sadly, perhaps that's what it will take for our self-centred, cynical society to finally heed the true significance of Benedict's warning.
-ccm
Canadians also seem to have a taste for porn and strip joints that puts the "decadent" US in the shade, in my experience.
-ccm
Oh man this is going to be a fun thread.
For later.
Looking at historical trends, when a society or civilization stops reproducing, it is near its end. Even with the barbarians swarming over the borders, the Romans were just to busy watching the circus to have kids or defends themselves.
No problem, I do that all too often myself.
My concern is that if even Catholic populations are doing this to approximately the same degree as everyone else, something else is going on. I have no agenda here, just a concern that we're missing something.
I will say that I don't really think everyone has suddenly become more self-centered than in the past. Not all over Europe (and Japan, I think)
Canada ping.
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Something I'm curious about.. what percentage of Canadians are Catholic?
Gmmac, Irish has a question....
Something I'm curious about.. what percentage of Canadians are Catholic?
:)
How does that "embarassing" comment fit in with your "concern"?
Both this Pope (yes, even in Italy) as well as the last has lamented the increased pursuit of material things at the expense of spiritual and moral health, as well as the deemphasis of marriage, as being critical in the decline in birth rates in the developed world. The fact that birth rates are steady in the thrid world would seem to bear this out.
<< ... number of children per woman: 2.0 is the rate required to maintain the population ... >>
It's more like 2.3, I believe.
Russia's is around 1.2, Serious enough that Russia, by then having lost all of its Far East, will be effectively be but the content of history's dustbin within around 50 years.
<< Why single out Canada? >>
Same reason he might "single out you" if it was you he was talking to, about you.
Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3% (including United Church 9.5%, Anglican 6.8%, Baptist 2.4%, Lutheran 2%), other Christian 4.4%, Muslim 1.9%, other and unspecified 11.8%, none 16% (2001 census)
Evidently here the Pope is speaking to "his own."
Looking at my own family tree (patrilineal):
Gen 1 ... Y family immigrated from Bavaria to USA, 1870's
Great-Grandfather Y raised 11 kids from 2 marriages.
Gen 2 ... Grandpa and Grandma Y raised 5 kids (born 1910-1925)
Gen 3 ... Father Y raised 2 kids (born in 1948 and 1951)
Gen 4 ... My generation. My husband and I have 2 kids, 1 born and 1 adopted. (My brother had no children.)
Sure looks like the Decline of the West, eh?
And why? In the case of my husband and me, late marriage.
Thanks.
Not really. Hockey is as popular as ever.
Roman Catholic 42.6%...
I figured Catholicism has to be the largest religion in Canada alright.
So if you're nonbelieving and nonpracticing, you're still listed as -- whatever your family was.
Which I think is the case with a LOT of secularized, God-scorning, non-Catholic "Catholics" in, f'rinstance, Quebec.
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