Posted on 05/22/2023 11:21:50 AM PDT by ebb tide
Italy’s current birthrate is 392,598 newborns per year, a staggering 30 percent drop since 2008, unsustainably low for any country. To avert catastrophe Italy must reach 500,000 newborns annually by 2033.
Ever since his “Catholics shouldn’t breed like rabbits” comment in 2015, Pope Francis has not been popularly perceived as a person sympathetic to pro-natalist policies and attitudes. But in fact, for the second year in a row, he has spoken at the “General State of the Birthrate” conference in Rome. Even more strikingly, this year he shared the stage with Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of an Italian right-wing government of precisely the sort of which globalists generally disapprove.
In her address, Meloni proposed the same pro-life, pro-family policies adopted by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which have reduced abortion and divorce while boosting birth and marriage rates.
Meloni insisted that it is time to improve the birthrate but said it must be done without resorting to surrogacy. “We want a nation where it is no longer scandalous to say that — whatever the legitimate, free choices, inclinations of each person — we are all born of a man or a woman,” Meloni said to applause. “Where it is not taboo to say that motherhood is not for sale, that wombs are not for rent and children are not over-the-counter products that you can choose on the shelf as if you were in the supermarket and maybe return if then the product does not match what you expect.”
In more subdued comments, Pope Francis urged concrete action to reverse the demographic winter. Scolding women who have pets instead of children, he also called for greater assistance for couples to have more children, saying it was necessary to “plant the future” with hope. “Let us not resign ourselves to sterile dullness and pessimism,” Francis told participants. “Let us not believe that history is already marked, that nothing can be done to reverse the trend.”
All this comes at a time when concern has arisen over a book published in June 2022 by the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, entitled Etica Teologica della Vita, which suggests that the teaching on contraception and marital chastity in Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae can be changed.
In the volume, which compiles the proceedings of an Academy seminar encouraged by Pope Francis, Archbishop Paglia speaks of contraception as a possible morally licit choice, writing: “The wise choice [with regard to contraception] will be realized by appropriately evaluating all possible techniques with reference to their specific situation and obviously excluding abortifacient ones.”
Sources say a document is also being prepared for Pope Francis under Paglia’s supervision that would lay the groundwork for the overturning of Humanae Vitae.
Dr John Haas, president emeritus and senior fellow at the US-based National Catholic Bioethics Center, told the Catholic Herald “The fact is that the teaching contained in Humanae Vitae is that of the entire moral tradition of the Church and cannot be changed.”
In response to the volume, a major international conference entitled “Humanae Vitae: the audacity of an encyclical on sexuality and procreation,” was held on May 19-20 at the Augustinianum in Rome to defend the teachings found in Humanae Vitae. This encyclical, Dr Haas observed, “contains truths which can be understood by anyone with the use of reason.”
Speakers included an international panel of experts, including Cardinal Luis Ladaria, SJ, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, will deliver introductory remarks.
In his talk Dr Haas sought to show the inextricable link between contraception and abortion. “As St John Paul II said, ‘they are fruit of the same tree,’” he explained. “I use the Anglican example as a cautionary tale for the Church. You embrace contraception and abortion is sure to follow. Archbishop Paglia already rejects the reality of intrinsically evil acts when he suggests that we can legitimately choose contraception. There is no longer a reason to reject abortion. It all depends on places, times, circumstances, personal history, etc, as to what act one chooses.”
“At a time when the Church’s teaching on marital chastity is incessantly attacked by secular powers and institutions, we cannot countenance its also being attacked by individuals within the Church who should be defending and clarifying it,” Haas added. “It is very encouraging that over 20 international academic and scholarly institutions are participating in this very important congress in defence of marriage and family which are safeguarded by the teaching of what has come to be seen as a prophetic encyclical.”
Asked about the alleged imminent reversal of Humanae Vitae, Dr Haas replied: “I have only heard the rumours. But it is not a question of overturning Humanae Vitae but also Casti Connubii of Pius XI as well as Evangelium Vitae and Familiaris Consortio of St John Paul II, as well as his entire Theology of the Body. It would also mean rejecting Gaudium et Spes of Vatican II. Indeed, to overturn Humanae Vitae would mean rejecting the entire moral tradition of the Catholic Church.”
I understand and agree. Too bad Bergoglio, Cockroche and company do not.
And let’s not forget Pope St. Pius V and his Quo Primum.
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