Mary KennyWhen we consider Pope Francis’ remarks about it being rather selfish not to have children, we have to see it in the context of Italy today.
Italy’s low birth rate is catastrophic. The famously child-loving Italians currently have their lowest rate of births since 1870, with just 8.5 babies born for every 1,000 of the population (Ireland’s rate is just over 15, France’s just over 12). Turkey tops the fertility league of western countries – partly in Europe, partly in Asia as it is – with over 18 per 1,000.
For the first time in the history of a united Italy, deaths are now outstripping births. Small wonder that the health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, has warned: “We are a dying country.” If there are more deaths than births, the mathematics is inescapable.
Implications
“This situation,” she said at a press conference last week, “has enormous implications for every sector – the economy, society, health, pensions.”
It also has another implication, which must be addressed.
Italy is the European country probably most besieged by illegal immigration – by weekly boatloads of poor people from Africa and the Middle East who have risked everything to find asylum across the Mediterranean in Italy. On the whole, Italy has been humane in its efforts to grant succour to these afflicted refugees, some of whom actually perish in the often risky transit.
But uncontrolled migration will often bring social and cultural clashes, and when this happens, it is exacerbated by a low birth rate among the host community.
I’ve heard it in British hospitals, many times over. “It’s the immigrant mothers who are having the babies.” It’s not always said nastily, but it is noted.
And actually, where a host nation does not uphold its own fertility, it will be obliged to turn to immigrants to service its economy. That’s obvious too. If Italy eventually becomes more like Somalia in its cultural orientation, quite honestly, the Italians will only have themselves to blame – yes, for being too selfish, as a nation, to have children. This is not about race: it’s about demography.
At an individual level, people have different reasons for not wanting children, and sometimes they feel they are acting responsibly. It’s not for any of us to judge. But at a national level, any society which does not replace itself will be replaced by a culture that does replace itself. It’s an iron law of demographics, and in this sense, Pope Francis’ words will be seen in a historically just context.
Lenten dispensation for senior citizens
Surely it’s quite reasonable that people over 60 are excused from the rigours of Lenten fasts, abstinence and other privations: it’s not just that we become a little less robust with age, but there is less and less to give up!
However, once again, I shall attempt to deprive myself of my enduring addiction to chocolate. Even if I can manage to do without the choccy on Wednesdays and Fridays, I’ll be doing well. For the rest of the week, I’ll be explaining to myself that being a senior citizen, I now qualify for a dispensation. Excuses, excuses!
Rights for fathers
Should single fathers have more rights? There’s a compassionate case for saying yes – and John Waters has alerted us all to the way in which fathers are sometimes marginalised by our laws. And yet, so many women, past and present, have been left “holding the baby” because the father of their child wouldn’t, or won’t, marry them. There are several studies showing that it’s the refusal of the man to “stand by them” that prompts some women into abortion.