Dear Colleague:
Earlier this year we sent Joseph A. D'Agostino to Rome where, among other
activities, he interviewed two Vatican prelates. Here is what they had to
say about the life issues and demographics.
Steven W. Mosher
President
PRI Weekly Briefing
17 November 2006
Vol. 8, No. 45
Suicide of the West?
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
It is said that civilizations die more often by suicide than by murder.
Decades ago, James Burnham wrote Suicide of the West about the nature of
liberalism which, with its refusal to value any substantive thing over any
other, is the ideology of suicide. He wrote the book in the context of
the struggle against Communism, a struggle which, contrary to what many
believe, far from over. Today, the Christian-descended world again faces
a massive struggle against a more ancient enemy, Islam. With overwhelming
military, economic, and organizational might on its side, the West should
win this war easily-yet the suicidal ideology of liberalism puts the
contest in doubt. Yet Muslims are not the greatest threat to the West
today.
Remove the threat of Islam, remove the threat of Marxism, even remove the
threat posed by the process of cultural breakdown per se, and the West is
still on a rapid course to suicide. It's a very simple biological
reality: Western people are not having enough children. All Western
nations are currently headed for extinction. Societal suicide couldn't be
any simpler than that short of a country nuking itself.
Earlier this year, I traveled to the spiritual heart of the West, Rome,
where I met separately with two Vatican prelates. Cardinal Alfonso Lopez
Trujillo is President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, and Bishop
Elio Sgreccia is President of the Pontifical Academy for Life. They spoke
of the challenges facing Western societies that increasing refuse to
reproduce, particularly in Europe, the continent that for centuries, and
until recently in history, was the most vital source of spiritual and
material uplift and innovation for the entire world.
"In the Western culture, we have been witnessing a society model of
extreme liberalism rooted in moral relativism," said Cardinal Lopez
Trujillo, "refusing the traditional family model based on marriage between
a man and a woman, and thus other types of unions have been put forward
such as civil unions, de facto unions, and even unions of persons of the
same sex. This has resulted in the exaltation of individualistic models
with a profusion of rights but a refusal to assume the corresponding
responsibilities." Of course, those responsibilities used to include
raising children, but that has become purely optional these days.
The result? "That the fertility rate of 1.47 babies per woman is low,
according to the 2005 estimates for the European Union as a whole, is a
well-known fact," said the cardinal. A rate of about 2.1 in a stable
society is considered necessary to keep that society's population constant
in the long-term.
No better proof of societal ennui could exist than the voluntary refusal
of people to produce the next generation of Italians, Frenchmen,
Englishmen, and etc. Some argue that birthrates in Europe will begin to
rise again, but so far there is little evidence of that. Others say that
immigrants will renew Europe's populations-as if the majority Muslim and
unassimilated masses that Europe has imported over the past 30 years will
magically become acculturated. On the contrary, surveys consistently show
that the children and grandchildren of immigrants hate their host
countries even more than the original immigrants themselves.
As His Eminence emphasized, Western people have been accumulating more and
more "rights" in their own minds while discarding more and more of their
duties. These rights always work against new life. "Among the rights
that have been diffused have been those of abortion and of reproductive
health, bringing about a change in mentality," he said. "Also, the
creation of a welfare state in Europe has aggravated the problem by
imposing high taxes and perverse incentives. Young people are faced with
high taxes and a high rate of unemployment, which also contributes to
delaying the time of marriage and in limiting the size of the family."
So what is being done about this problem? People must have noticed,
right? "Thus far, there are very few concrete examples of solutions," he
said. "However, to take an example, France is one of the very few
European countries where the family has had a tendency over the past few
years to be slightly more numerous than in other states of the same
continent. It has been found that stimulating economic policies in favor
of the family has had the most positive effect." Of course, the fertility
rate of France, despite having the largest Muslim community in Western
Europe, is still below replacement level.
Traditional Catholic countries have now entered the vanguard of the
demographic winter, with some of the lowest birthrates in the world.
"Italy, Spain, Greece, have been late in taking the road of the family and
sexual revolution that had begun long before in the countries of Northern
Europe and in France," said Bishop Sgreccia. "These were, until recently,
countries of large families, with high birthrates, countries of
emigration. Things have been changing very quickly in both of these
countries [Italy and Spain], especially in Spain, leading to a kind of
negative reaction from younger people, against the model of family which
was predominant in their grandparents' and parents' times. Young women
especially want to take their place at the university, in business,
economics, law or medicine. For that reason, they want fewer children,
and later. In both Spain and Italy, private economic preoccupations seem
also to predominate, for the time being, against the desire for children."
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying in May, "Vast
areas of the world are entering the so-called 'demographic winter,'
resulting in a more aged population; families thus appear seized by the
fear of life, of paternity and maternity. Courage must be instilled into
them, so that they may continue to achieve their noble mission to
procreate in love."
With rampant divorce, rapidly rising expenses, and a popular culture
dedicated to the corruption of youth, no wonder young people today fear
marriage and child-bearing-especially when they are indoctrinated into the
belief that money and pleasure will provide them the most fulfillment.
And the media, prompted by governmental agencies and international
organizations, spread anti-life messages every day.
"Powerful multinational lobby groups and international organizations such
as the International Planned Parenthood Federation" are partly responsible
"for eroding family values and responsibilities," said Cardinal Lopez
Trujillo. "They attempt to introduce in some countries 'sexual education'
in primary and high schools, often without the consent or at least the
support of the parents, teaching the use of masturbation, contraception,
'safe sex,' and condoms. . . ."
Those who worry about Muslims, or Marxism, or too many immigrants are
right to do so. Yet these same people, usually politically and even
socially conservative, generally ignore the fundamental biological threat
facing all Western nations, especially European ones. (In fact, Europe,
broadly defined to include Eastern Europe and Russia, is already shrinking
in population.) Without a return to family values, we can honestly say
the suicide of the West is inevitable.
Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.
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