Spaniards fill downtown Madrid in a rally called to defend family values
Posted on 12/28/2009 9:08:30 AM PST by NYer
At a huge rally in the capital, Cardinal Antonio Rouco, the leader of Spain's Roman Catholics, told protesters the birth rate in Europe will be depleted unless Christian values are maintained.
Catholics attended a huge open air mass beside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium.
The mass marked the Feast of the Holy Family. But Catholic leaders from across Europe joined their local counterparts and members of the Spanish centre-Right opposition to castigate the socialist government's policies.
"Europe will be practically without children," warned Cardinal Rouco, 73, the conservative Archbishop of Madrid. "Who denies to defend a human being so innocent and weak, already conceived but not born, commits a grave violation of moral order."
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the prime minister, has introduced fast-track divorce and homosexual civil partnerships, while a controversial abortion law allows terminations on demand up to the 14th week og pregnancy, even without parental permission for 16 and 17-year-old girls.
A survey on religion in Spain, published just before Christmas by the newspaper Público, showed there has been a steady decline in those who describe themselves as Catholics in Spain - down almost four per cent to 26.2 per cent - and an increase in atheism.
Pope Benedict XVI sent a message of support to the rally, saying a family was "founded on the marriage between a man and a woman ... because it is of paramount importance for the present and the future of humanity".
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
Seeing this is a blessing for me! Thank you!
Just 26% Catholic in Spain? Am I reading this right?
How to Take the Chill Out of Demographic Winter
A speech by Don Feder to the New Generation Church, Riga, Latvia, November Nov. 15, 2007.
Population decline (also known as demographic winter) is very much a reality....
...a world without children is becoming a reality — not quickly, but so gradually that only demographers and a few others are able to discern it....
Philip Longman, who is a demographer and the author of “The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity,” observes: “The ongoing global decline in human birthrates is the single most powerful force affecting the fate of nations and the future of society in the 21st century.”
In weighing the fate of humanity, one number is crucial — 2.1. That’s the number of children the average woman must have during her lifetime just to achieve population stability or equilibrium — where you’re not losing people by attrition.
Why 2.1? Because a woman has to replace herself. Then she has to replace her partner. Then, because some children die before reaching their own childbearing years, there has to be a bit more — hence the extra one-tenth. A fertility rate of more than 2.1 means population growth. Less than 2.1 equals population decline.
As Longman notes, today, we are witnessing a worldwide fall in fertility rates unprecedented in human history.
There are now 59 nations — with 44% of the world’s population — that have below-replacement fertility rates.....
...In Europe, the number of children under 5 has fallen by a staggering 36% since 1960. The United Nations projects that, if current trends continue, by 2050 the world will hold 248 million fewer children under 5 than it does today....
...Demographic winter isn’t happening in a vacuum. The factors that drive declining fertility rates are economic, cultural, political and spiritual. Since the last is the most important, we’ll consider it last. Among the other trends commonly mentioned are:
· Birth Control and abortion — Today, just under half the world’s population uses some form of birth control. Worldwide, there were 42 million abortions in 2003. That means that each year, medical science, law and society conspire to destroy the equivalent of the population of Italy. Internationally, feminists work feverishly to force abortion on the dwindling number of countries where it’s still illegal. In most developed nations, abortion is not only legal, but — for the poor — paid for by the state. Is there another instance of a people subsidizing their own destruction?
· Urbanization — For the first time in history, we’re on the threshold of a world in which half of us will be city-dwellers. Raising children in high-rise apartments is much harder than raising them on a farm or in a village.
· Delayed marriage — Both men and women are delaying the average age of marriage. More women are in the labor force. (The hand that formerly rocked the cradle is now ringing the cash register or writing advertising copy.) Men and women both are staying in school longer, delaying family formation. After 35, it becomes progressively harder for women to conceive. Late marriage is a prescription for one-child families or childlessness.
· The entertainment media — Hollywood propagates a live-for-the-moment ethic and an ego-driven existence. The number of movies that portray large families (today, more than three children) can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand. Hollywood tells us that satisfaction comes from careers, “relationships,” travel, challenges met and overcome — but not from having children.
· The decline of marriage — Marriage is fading while cohabitation is increasingly popular. (In Scandinavia, almost as many couples are living together as married.) Cohabitation is not conducive to procreation or childrearing. Besides abortion, in the name of equality, the European Union goes to great lengths to promote “homosexual marriage.” In this regard, I use the term “marriage” advisably. It makes sense that the EU would facilitate the one union that can not conceivably produce children.
..In seeking to explain demographic winter, the factor most neglected is also the most significant. Demographic decline is a natural consequence of the loss of faith.
Europe has weekly church attendance of 5%, while in the United States, 42% attend religious services weekly. The U.S. has a fertility rate of around 2 — just about replacement level. As noted earlier, Europe’s fertility rate is 1.3, well below sustainability.
In America, there are wide variations by state. Mormon Utah has a fertility rate of 2.6, while 55% attend religious services weekly. New York State has a fertility rate of 1.86, and weekly church attendance of only 33%. New Hampshire and the District of Columbia are on the low end of the spectrum — both in terms of fertility (1.7 and 1.5 respectively) and church attendance (33% and 24%). None of this should be surprising.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1928399/posts
bookmark
good article bump
But it's great to see how many are Catholic and still have clarity and passion to voice their opinions in the streets.
Heck, even Elton John (who is gay) thinks gay Marriage is a really bad idea.................here.
The one demographic in regard to births that is not declining is for Muslims. At our Mass, the priest said that centuries ago an imam said that Muslims would conquer Europe through the wombs of the mothers, and it is so now in Europe. In 2003, The Brookings Institution reported “the Muslim birth rate in Europe is three times higher than the non-Muslim one. If current trends continue, the Muslim population of Europe will nearly double by 2015, while the non-Muslim population will shrink by 3.5 percent.”
There are two ways and only two ways to take the chill out of the Demographic Winter.
The first way is to turn back the clock to where it was 50 years ago, when women did not have careers and did not have birth control (essentially what the case is in Muslim societies now, although they never allowed the clock to go forward in the first place).
The second way is to simply treat children as another career path, and (have government) pay women a good salary to stay home and be moms. So you’d pay them, maybe $40k for the first child, $25k more for the second, $20k more for the third...up to a limit of maybe $200k for 10 kids. That simple.
If you do neither, you get the Demographic Winter that Western and Asian cultures are now dealing with...sure you have kids, but much fewer and much later, and simply not enough for replacement. For you Libertarians out there that think government should stay out of family planning...sorry, but you’re imposing a death sentence on the society that my kids and grandkids will have to live in.
(Do a find on the word "religion" to find it faster amongst all the info.)
I heard an interesting dissertation on the topic recently. The individaul made an astute comment asserting that when people believe in God, they take pride in their family history and have children who will carry on that tradition. When faith is removed, secularism fills the void. In such a society, people "live in the moment" with little thought for the future, or any interest in the past.
Thank you for that link!
Population decline (also known as demographic winter) is very much a reality....If that is something to be avoided, then there is a simple solution.
Encourage teenage girls to have sex early, often, and without contraception. Downplay the downsides of teen motherhood. Chant the slogan, "16 is too late to have a first baby."
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.