Leon J. Podles :: DIALOGUE

Ireland been shaken by the revelation of the tens of thousands of children physically and sexually abused by Catholic priests, brothers, and nuns.
Archbishop Cousins of Milwaukee knew that the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, the head of St. John’s School for the Deaf, was an abuser. In 1993 victims came to Archbishop Cousins, but Cousins defended Murphy [...]

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Allan Carlson has emphasized that a government can’t buy a higher birthrate. Generous family allowances may encourage couples to have their children earlier in life, but the ultimate birthrate is not affected.

This seems to have happened in Germany. The German government is concerned about the abysmal birthrate in Germany and increased family allowances. Der Spiegel [...]

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Herbert Lackner writing in the Austrian newsmagazine Profil is shocked, shocked, to discover that Cardinal Schönborn is Catholic and supports the teachings of the papacy (whose current occupant happens to be his professor at Regensburg and I believe his dissertation director). 
 
In March 2008 he spoke to priests of the neocatechumate.  
 

His theme: the fall of the [...]

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The facts of demographic decline are starting to sink in. The working age population is already declining in some countries, according to a column in the Washington Post: 

Aging is, well, old. But depopulation — the delayed result of falling birthrates — is new. The working-age population has already begun to decline in several large developed [...]

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The National Post reports

Canada’s under-15 population fell by almost 146,000 or 2.5% between 2001 and 2006, the latest census figures show, and is now sitting at 5.6 million.

Just after the height of the baby boom in 1961, more than one-third of the Canadian population (34%) was under 15-years-old, but by 2006, declining birth rates [...]

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The Globe and Mail reports

As Canada’s population ages, more and more patients are suffering from a host of chronic diseases, but there are too few general practitioners and specialists across the country to provide timely and quality care, a survey of doctors concludes.

When our son John, who has juvenile diabetes, was in Montreal, he had [...]

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Not only developed countries like Germany are facing depopulation. Cuba’s demographic decline has already begin according to El Pais’s article “La población Cubana decrece por tercer año consecutive” (”The Cuban Population Decreases for the Third Year in a Row”). The decline is accelerating (un ritmo acelerado). In 2025 there will be 74,000 Cubans fewer than [...]

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Le Figaro reports: 

La France est un pays qui vieillit. Près d’un habitant sur trois devrait avoir plus de 60 ans en 2050, contre un sur cinq en 2005. Soit 22,3 millions de personnes séxagénaires et plus, contre 12,6 millions. A cette date, l’âge moyen des Français sera de 42,6 ans, contre 39 ans en 2006.
 
France [...]

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The Germans are having to face the consequences of their failure to have children. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that massive numbers of apartemts have to be demolished. There are now 82 million people living in Germany; by 2050 there will be only 70 million. Even by 2020 there will be 350,000 fewer households, and [...]

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The majority of Austrians (63%) fear the consequences of the low birth rate in their country, according to Kath.net.                                                                                                        But the age distribution means that those who could do something about it are least likely to.  Among older Austrians 74% fear what will happen.  But among the under-thirty generation, only 44% fear the consequences. 
Consequently, the number [...]

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Austria is nervous about its future, because Austrians have stopped having children in sufficient numbers to maintain the population. The government has proclaimed 2008 as Year of the Family.
 
The new Family Minister Andra Kodolsky, reports Der Standard, is proposing  that parents have a choice of how long and how much money they would receive from [...]

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