Demographics trump dissent

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Mar 17, 2006

To those of us who have long been interested in population studies, it was clear at least as early as 1990 that there was going to be serious trouble for those countries lining the northern Mediterranean rim as reproduction rates continued to drop, the average age of the population continued to rise, and immigration tallies (particularly of Arabs and Muslims) skyrocketed.

However, with all of the media attention this alarming “new” trend has earned recently, one might begin to wonder: Did those of us who feared that Pope John Paul II was not a rigorous enough disciplinarian get it wrong?

Our late Pope must surely have been aware of the population trends in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere. With most prominent dissident Catholic leaders above the age of 60, and the general failure of dissidents to procreate, their cause has no future. So-- the argument could go-- what is the point of further punishment?

If the predictions are true, within several generations we may be looking at a dramatically different landscape in the Church. As the long-suffering Catholics (those who have actually read and understood Evangelium Vitae) emerge triumphant, what will we need to make that victory truly productive-– and prevent ourselves from becoming insufferable? Courage, patience, humility, charity, meekness-- virtues our late Pope possessed in abundance, and wrote about eloquently.

The pursuit of evil brings its own punishment.