With Europe locked in the depths
of demographic winter, the World Congress of Families offers a thaw
(“the natural family” as “the springtime of nations”) as it
prepares for its 4th Congress -- Warsaw 2007.
The population bomb, hyped by the
likes of Paul Ehrlich (AKA: Malthus Man), turned out to be a dud. The
Western world now faces the reality of depopulation. Since the
1970s, worldwide fertility rates have been cut in half. In all, 59
nations with 44% of the world’s people have below-replacement
birthrates.
To maintain a stable population
requires a birthrate of 2.1 children per woman. Italy’s rate is 1.2.
In Spain, the average is just 1.15.
Russia is losing 700,000 people a
year by attrition. If the trend isn’t reversed, by 2050, the nation
could lose one-third of its current population (146 million).
Confronting this chilling prospect,
Russian President Vladimir Putin has adopted a pro-natalist policy,
including a $110-monthly stipend to Russian families that have a
second child. Stay-at-home moms would receive 40% of their former
salary, and families with two children also would get a direct
payment of $9,000.
For years, Western governments have
created financial disincentives to child-rearing, so it’s
encouraging to see some leveling of the playing field. Still, the
question remains: Can families be paid to have children?
Pope Benedict XVI doesn’t think so.
At a recent meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social
Sciences, the pope blamed the “eclipse of love” and “materialistic
visions of the universe, of life and human fulfillment” for falling
birthrates.
Bluntly put, for decades, Western
society -- under the sway of feminists, environmentalists, Zero
Population Growth-types and other assorted utopians -- has
inculcated an anti-family ethos.
Selfishness was
celebrated. Marriage and children were downgraded to lifestyle options. Women who
stayed at home to raise and nurture a family were derided. The
importance of fathers was downplayed. Abortion was enshrined as a
“human right.” And contraception was ubiquitous.
Exacerbating the trend, in the
postwar period, most industrialized nations rapidly secularized. In
Western Europe, weekly church attendance has fallen to 5%, compared
with 30-40% in the United States (which has a replacement-level
birthrate of 2.1).
Faith is the strongest incentive for
family formation and procreation. Mormon Utah has the highest
birthrate in America. Worldwide, it’s traditional Catholics,
Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians who are having large
families.
Economist Robert J. Samuelson wrote
about depopulation graphically in a Washington Post column (June 15,
2005).
“Europe as we know it is going out of
business,” Samuelson warned. Talk of a united Europe challenging
America is a fantasy. “It’s hard to be a great power if your
population’s shriveling,” the economist observed. It’s also hard to
maintain a social insurance system with a demographic deficit.
Samuelson: “Western Europe’s population grows dramatically grayer,
projects the U.S. Census Bureau. Now about one-sixth of the
population is 65 and older. By 2030 that would be one-fourth, and by
2050 almost one-third.”
None of this has penetrated craniums
in Brussels. The European Union now is insisting that members
facilitate homosexual marriages contracted elsewhere. If a same-sex
union is formed in the Netherlands, Belgium or Spain (the only
countries to recognize same), and the couple moves elsewhere in
Europe, the new state of residence will be expected to recognize the
union.
Rocco Buttiglione, formerly a member
of the Italian government, charged the EU is advancing a “soft
totalitarianism” that seeks a state religion which is “an atheistic,
nihilistic religion – but it is a religion that is obligatory for
all.”
While Europe suffers from
empty-cradle syndrome, the EU is intent on promoting unions which
are guaranteed to be sterile, thus advancing extinction in the name
of a dubious equality.
If Europe has a sickness of the soul,
the World Congress of Families has the cure. With this in mind, the
International Planning Committee (of which I’m a member), chose
Warsaw as the site of World Congress of Families IV (May 11-13,
2007).
The World Congress of Families was
founded by Dr. Allan Carlson – family scholar, author and the
president of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.
Under Carlson’s guidance, the
Congress fosters an international network of pro-family
organizations, activists, scholars and parliamentarians seeking to
restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit.
The World Congress of Families’
mission is to shift the terms of debate – “1) From the family as an
obstacle to development, to the family as the source of stability,
social renewal and progress, 2) From the small family and voluntary
childlessness as good to a celebration of the large family as a
special social gift and 3) From religious orthodoxy as a hindrance
to progress to religious orthodoxy as the source of humane values
and cultural progress.”
Quietly and unobtrusively, WCF is
making progress. There have been three Congresses to date – Prague
(1997), Geneva (1999) and Mexico City (2004). Each has been roughly
double the size of the previous Congress.
Typical
of the spin-off effects and synergy of these gatherings, Mexican
businessmen Fernando Milanes and Jesus Hernandez came to Geneva for
World Congress of Families II as concerned citizens. Hernandez and
Milanes were so inspired by Geneva that they returned to Mexico and
formed The Family Network – now the country’s most active pro-family
alliance, with tens of thousands of members.
Their organization became the host
committee for World Congress of Families III. Over 3,300 delegates
from 70 countries assembled in Mexico City’s Banamex Center for the
first Congress in the Western Hemisphere.
Now, it’s Poland’s turn. An island of
pro-family values in a sea of political correctness, Poland has
produced many intellectual champions of the family, including Pope
John Paul II. In the 20th century, Poland endured both
Nazism and communism – ideological onslaughts on the family.
In the early decades of this century,
Europe will be pivotal to the battle for the family. If the family
fails in the Old World, the repercussions will be worldwide. (A
faction of the Supreme Court is fond of citing European rulings as “precedent” for U.S. law.)
Poland’s central location makes it
accessible to delegates from both Western and Eastern Europe, as
well as to the nations of the former Soviet Union.
The next World Congress of Families
will address such timely issues as: the importance of marriage,
fecundity as a natural expression of family love and hope for the
future, how to counter assaults on the family (including
pornography, drugs, a hostile media, cohabitation, divorce and
marriage-substitutes), rejecting the contraceptive mentality,
promoting pro-family policies, building a new culture of marriage
and strengthening the vital bond of faith and family.
The International Planning Committee
for WCF IV convened in Warsaw in early May to meet with the Polish
host committee and political and religious leaders. The opening
session was held in the office of Prime Minister Kasimierz Marchinkewicz and was attended by his chief of staff as well as by
three leading members of Poland’s Senate. Poland’s new conservative
government pledged full support for WCF IV.
The Committee also was granted an
audience with Archbishop Kazimierz Majdanski – who, as a young
priest, was imprisoned by the Nazis. The founder of Poland’s
Institute for Studies of the Family, Archbishop Majdanski gave the
Congress his blessing and promised to provide more than 200 student
volunteers.
The May, 2007 Congress will be held
in the tallest building in Warsaw. The Palace of Culture and Science
was Stalin’s gift to the Polish people. For 40 years, its 3,000-seat
Congress Hall was the site of annual meetings of the Polish
Communist Party. Next year, a very different type of assembly will
take place there -- a meeting whose slogan could be: “Families of
The World Unite! You have nothing to lose but ideologically imposed
utopian visions.”
Members of the Planning Committee
came to Warsaw from the United States, Mexico, Kenya, Qatar, France,
Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Pakistan and Russia to help
coordinate what is fast becoming an international secretariat for
pro-family activity.
The Eur-acracy can’t be pleased about
what’s coming its way in less than a year. Like their communist
predecessors, politicians who would consign the family to oblivion
believe that history is on their side. The World Congress of
Families will help to prove them wrong.
GrassTopsUSA is a
proud co-sponsor of World Congress of Families IV. For more
information about World Congress of Families IV, go to
http://www.worldcongress.org/
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