Federal statistics at http://www.fedstats.gov show American birth rates declining while our total population increases. Despite birth rates in first-world nations being in decline, rates in third-world nations (whose economies cannot support larger family sizes) are disturbingly high.
The role of birth control, religion and family planning are critical in these cases - which is what makes Pope John Paul II's recent presentation in the Italian Parliament so disturbing.
On Nov. 14, the Pope's speech to the Italian Legislative body marked the first time a Pope has made an official address to the Italian government since the unification of the country.
In his speech, the Pope said Italy needs "to encourage and support larger families in order to fight a declining birth rate."
It strikes me as seriously irresponsible for a leading world figure, one whose religion certainly plays a role with far-reaching effects around the world, to advocate that any country increase its birth rate when the resources of our planet are already overtaxed by the 6,257,298,613-plus members of the human race.
Italy already suffers from high rates of homelessness and unemployment; the country cannot support its current population, let alone new additions. Those Catholics who follow their religion to a 'T' already have larger families, while those who do not should not be made to feel pressured by a religious leader whose logic in encouraging increases in reproduction is shaky at best.
Industrialized nations, which use more resources per capita than their still-developing counterparts, have low birth rates. If this trend changes, it will not be solely due to the Pope's address in Italy ... but every little bit "helps."
More disturbing about the Pope's message is the likelihood that Catholics around the world - not just in Italy - will take his message to heart. No message delivered by a figure so central to the lives of so many can be expected to remain within the borders he intended for it.
Fears about low birth rates seem, in many cases, to be provoked by nationalistic concerns - one country worrying that it will be outnumbered by natural-born members of another. Isn't this part of why Americans find the idea of China, a communist nation with a population of over a billion people, so intimidating?
What the Pope's message fails to address is the globalization of nationalities and cultures. Pope John Paul II should not be concerned with Italian birth rates. He shouldn't even be that worried about Catholics birth rates, except in his role as an intermediary between Catholics and their God.
What should concern him far more is the state of those people in countries that do have high birth rates - Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and other African nations, as well as underdeveloped countries in Central and South America.
Africa is host to the largest number of Catholic converts in the world, and these new followers of Rome will also be deeply affected by the Pope's words. These countries are not only poverty stricken, but also locations where AIDS currently decimates populations. The average African woman bears more children in a lifetime than her Western counterparts. These cases, in which contraceptive protection would be beneficial both to individual and public health, are the ones in which Catholicism's strictures against birth control (and protection from sexually transmitted diseases) do the most harm.
The developed world should worry less about creating more of a problem. A more pressing concern should be curbing practices which decrease the quality of life among children forced to work in East Asian sweatshops, Nigerians forced from their homes by the practices of Shell Oil and Chevron, and women whose right to live without fear of being raped or attacked are being trampled on in countries from South Africa to the Middle East.
Italy consumes over four times as much energy as it produces. Although Americans are often castigated for our use of more than our share of the world's limited resources, the only country in Europe that produces more energy than it uses as of 2002 is Great Britain.
By encouraging citizens of an industrialized nation to increase the levels of limited natural resources they consume through reproduction, instead of by taking in refugees from countries that cannot support the populations they already have, the Pope shows himself to be dangerously behind the times.
If peace on earth and good will toward men are truly aims of the Catholic church, then perhaps its leader should consider making a statement less likely to contribute to an even wider divide between the first-world "haves" and the third-world "have-nots." For example, he could encourage Italians to show a bit more of the care and compassion they would lavish on newborn babies to the disadvantaged members of their own society.
That, at least, would be a message worth spreading.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
