Spes Non Confundit 9: Parents and Children

9. Looking to the future with hope also entails having enthusiasm for life and a readiness to share it. Sadly, in many situations this is lacking. A first effect of this is the loss of the desire to transmit life.

Birthrate declines are perhaps not yet on the radar because we don’t really see children in most cultures. At some point this will be felt, and perhaps it’s not so different from climate change. We don’t feel it when oceans warm by a degree or two. And when a heat wave is a little longer, a little more intense, the more well-off can retreat to air-conditioned buildings.

The world population will continue to rise because many countries are still “replacing” the elderly at a surplus.

A number of countries are experiencing an alarming decline in the birthrate as a result of today’s frenetic pace, fears about the future, the lack of job security and adequate social policies, and social models whose agenda is dictated by the quest for profit rather than concern for relationships. In certain quarters, the tendency “to blame population growth, instead of extreme and selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of refusing to face the [real] issues”. [Laudato Si’ 50]

Yes and no. Science has helped the world grow enough food to feed people. Distribution and profiteering are still the primary causes of hunger. At some point, overpopulation is a theoretical reality. The only question is how people define it. If the planet’s entire land area were as densely populated as Singapore, we’d have a trillion people. One endless city, and Singapore does relatively well for its citizens, no?

I’d say there are other issues at play, as Pope Francis suggests.

Openness to life and responsible parenthood is the design that the Creator has implanted in the hearts and bodies of men and women, a mission that the Lord has entrusted to spouses and to their love. It is urgent that responsible legislation on the part of states be accompanied by the firm support of communities of believers and the entire civil community in all its components. For the desire of young people to give birth to new sons and daughters as a sign of the fruitfulness of their love ensures a future for every society. This is a matter of hope: it is born of hope and it generates hope.

To be clear, the number of new daughters and sons in the world is far from zero. More people are declining to have children, true. Many already-born children languish without parents. Consideration of and for them is also a sign of hope. It is perhaps a significant miss this document doesn’t mention adoption.

A challenge that some parishes and dioceses are unprepared for:

Consequently, the Christian community should be at the forefront in pointing out the need for a social covenant to support and foster hope, one that is inclusive and not ideological, working for a future filled with the laughter of babies and children, in order to fill the empty cradles in so many parts of our world.

That position at the forefront would need to begin with its own lay employees.

All of us, however, need to recover the joy of living, since men and women, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Genesis 1:26), cannot rest content with getting along one day at a time, settling for the here and now and seeking fulfilment in material realities alone. This leads to a narrow individualism and the loss of hope; it gives rise to a sadness that lodges in the heart and brings forth fruits of discontent and intolerance.

You can check the full document on the Vatican website here.