Catholic Ping
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Posted on 06/06/2011 2:50:08 PM PDT by NYer
ROME, June 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The archetypal Italian family, with mamma and papa presiding over a noisy dinner table, surrounded by rambunctious children and grandchildren, has become a cultural artifact of the past. Not only are Italians not having children, they are increasingly not even bothering to get married, according to recently released government statistics.
The decline in marriages is unusually uniform in a country that sees large regional cultural differences between north and south. While Italy still has a relatively low rate of divorce, with only about 10 percent of marriages failing, young people especially are increasingly either delaying marriage for decades, or opting out altogether.
The decrease can mainly be seen in a decline in first marriages, particularly among people under 35. In just two years, the number of first marriages across the country has dropped by 30,000. At the same time, while abortion rates remain relatively low compared to other countries, Italy continues its birth-rate spiral, with only 1.39 children born per woman.
The crude marriage rates in Italy (the number of marriages per 1,000 individuals in the population), fell between 1970 and 2007 from 7.35 to 4.21.
The government Istat report found that while increasing numbers of “de facto unions” and cohabitation before marriage influenced the numbers, the main reason for the drop in marriage is the “prolonged stay of young people in the family of origin.” Italy’s “precarious” work and housing situation, with house and rent prices increasing despite the global economic crisis, has contributed to young people staying in their parents’ home.
The continuing global fallout of the 1960s and ‘70s Sexual Revolution has hit the Mediterranean countries hard. A report by the US-based National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, found that southern European countries had the lowest divorce rates in 1970, but experienced the largest combined increases in the crude divorce rate over the following thirty years. “A likely factor driving this increase is that divorce in these three countries was legalized in the past three decades,” the report found.
Italy may be showing the tiny island nation of Malta what their future will hold after their vote this week to legalize divorce. Marriages are already decreasing in Malta, with the overall crude rate dropping progressively from 8.5 per 1000 population in 1980 to 5.9 per 1000 in 2005. With the introduction of civil marriage in 1975, the islands have seen an increase in the civil marriages from 0.3 per 1000 in 1980 to 4.0 in 2005. Proportionately to Christian marriages, civil marriages since 1980 have seen a steady increase, about 30 percent, with a sharp rise after 1991. Canonical marriages have halved in the same period, from 8.2 per 1000 to 4.0.
Marriage breakdown in Malta has seen a shocking increase over the last 30 years, with the 1985 census showing 1.1 percent of marriages suffered separation, annulment or divorce. By 1995, that number had increased 78.4 percent to 1.7 per cent. By 2005, the number had jumped to 4 percent of the population, an increase since 1985 of 161.9 percent.
In contrast the number of married individuals has only risen by 7.5 percent, a figure approximately half that of the observed rise in the total population, or 13.9 percent.
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
If Italian women don’t care about being married, I guess that’s the end of the story.
Part of the problem is economic. Some are reluctant to get married while waiting for more economic security. You can work in Italy and literally not get paid, at all.
Somehow I’m sure this is the case in Marxachusetts as well, although I haven’t seen any studies done yet.
The birth rate for US whites is not much higher, about 1.8.
It won’t be long before Italy and the rest of Europe becomes part of The Caliphate.
Don’t be too alarmed. This will be reversed soon.
Unfortunately, by then the most popular name for a newborn will be “Mohammed.”
You'd think that a strongly Catholic country like Italy would have higher birth rates. This is a head scratcher.
But I wonder what it is in Marxist states like MA, and other sodomy strongholds.
They must have missed all the ‘don’t shack up’ sermons.
Marxachusetts is so strange; it’s got an Irish Catholic majority and lots of kids running around - free med care for kids under 18. But then all kinds of whacked out sodomy laws put upon the populace by the ruling elitists.
Maybe they're too drunk to know any better. :)
“Don’t be too alarmed. This will be reversed soon.”
On what basis, do you make this claim?
In socialist nations, the cost of living is too high. People are too busy working to pay taxes, and children are expensive. Besides, Italian women were abused for centuries by cheating husbands, and they had no way out of these unhappy marriages. When given the choice, apparently these young Italian women would prefer to remain single. My mother and her sisters are all full blooded Italian, but born in the US [their parents were born in Italy]. My mother and aunts all married non-Italian men, after witnessing their parents’ marriage and the culture. Sorry to fellow Italians out there, but this has been my family’s experience.
In demographics, it has long been known that when a nation reaches a particular economic plateau, the birthrate drops from large families to between 2.1 and 2.3 children per family, a no growth rate.
However, both government and the predominant culture can lower this birthrate even lower, by placing additional burdens on prospective parents. Often these seem benign, or even beneficial, such as setting minimal standards for education, health and prosperity. Each new requirement discourages a few more couples from having even two children, or any at all.
Other factors, such as employment, prices, taxes, residences; city, suburban or rural living; ease of contraception and abortion, and adult oriented entertainment come into play as well. And then, finally, religion and morality can either encourage or discourage having children.
Only one modern nation has ever succeeded in creating a baby boom, albeit unintentionally, and that is the United States. It achieved this through a peculiar combination of factors.
1) New cities, with far more adults of child bearing age than typical.
2) Mostly male (9-5) employment, with females taking the role of housekeeper, and wages high enough, and taxes low enough, for a one breadwinner household income.
3) A general lack of adult oriented entertainment, though lots of schools, churches, and other family oriented recreation.
4) Boredom, which was a critical factor in deciding to have children for many. If they could afford it, why not have children? It was something to do.
Since this is the only model known to work, if Italy, or Russia, or any of the other developed nations truly wish to increase their marriage and birthrate, this is the way for them to achieve it.
This is a suicide of a whole tribe of modern people. They followed secular elitists (tribal leaders) whose advice and modern culture and education was designed for their demise.
People’s spirits, hearts and minds do not thrive in a culture of death. The culture of death took hold of Western people when the Western secular elite decided the globe was over populated and they hated God and loved evil.
All white tribes will be following the same path; the Italians just led the pack of lemmings. We have all been debased and culturally cleansed. Currently we are permitting the elite in the US to sexually twist children in schools so they will not create normal families and heterosexual relationships in the future.
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They will get married and they will go back to having kids as the country goes on,if there is an ethnic group or country resilient to keep on surviving it is them.
Yes indeed. Sad to see it coming.
“However, both government and the predominant culture can lower this birthrate even lower, by placing additional burdens on prospective parents. Often these seem benign, or even beneficial, such as setting minimal standards for education, health and prosperity. Each new requirement discourages a few more couples from having even two children, or any at all.”
You have solved Riddle of the Sphinx. Very, very, few people can understand the marginal impact of policies like you mentioned. But I do think liberal leaders FULLY understand these impacts, and they are VERY HAPPY with the results.
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