Pope's warning (to Canada)

Calsun ^ | May 24, 2006 | ROY CLANCY

[ccmay]

It's hard to take a prophet seriously when he predicts that the Iranians and Arabs are going to have a conflict at some unspecified point in the future. That's like believing that someone is telepathic because he tells you he knows you like ice cream.

-ccm

[ccmay]

I'd love to have children if it weren't for the fact that every Canadian woman I've dated over the last 2 years weren't a hardcore pro-abortion feminist or turned out to be messed up on drugs. I know this statement sounds outlandish but it's true.

Canadians also seem to have a taste for porn and strip joints that puts the "decadent" US in the shade, in my experience.

-ccm

[Antoninus]

Most common male baby name in Hamburg: Mohammad.

Well, it's not #1 in Britain yet, though it does occupy at least two spots on the top 10 list under different spellings.

It seems that some of these tolerant "modern" women in the West won't be happy until an imam decides what they can wear for them.

[redgolum]

Oh man this is going to be a fun thread.

For later.

[redgolum]

A society that doesn't reproduce is sick, by definition. It's not just Canada. Western civilization is sick. Hopefully, the illness isn't mortal.

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.

[From many - one.]

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)

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping Ultra Sonic.

Canada ping.

Please FReepmail me to get on or off this ping list.

[Antoninus]

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.

The "something else" is that the Catholic countries of Europe are now just as secularized as the Protestant ones. All you have to do is look at the rates of church attendence. That tells the whole tale right there.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Something I'm curious about.. what percentage of Canadians are Catholic?

[fanfan]

Irish, I don't know.

Gmmac, Irish has a question....

Something I'm curious about.. what percentage of Canadians are Catholic?

[Irish_Thatcherite]

:)

[TomB]

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.

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.

[Brian Allen]

<< ... 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.

[Brian Allen]

<< Why single out Canada? >>

Same reason he might "single out you" if it was you he was talking to, about you.

[Mrs. Don-o]

From CIA Factbook Canada:

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.

[fanfan]

Thanks.

[Mr. Mojo]

....which simply means Canada's population is turning away from organized religion.

Not really. Hockey is as popular as ever.

[Candor7]

Hey, I would be happy to visit Canada and try to help the men out, up there!

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Ok, thanks! :)

Roman Catholic 42.6%...

I figured Catholicism has to be the largest religion in Canada alright.

[Mrs. Don-o]

This is complicated by the fact that religion polls usually ask "what religion were you raised in."

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.