Italian bishops' conference leader laments nation's population decline
August 31, 2010
Italian society is “seriously mutilated” by the nation’s negative birthrate, said Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, president of the nation’s episcopal conference. The nation’s population is expected to decline by nearly 10% in the next four decades.
“Demographic balance is not only necessary for the physical survival of a community-- which without children has no future-- but is also a condition for that alliance between generations that is essential for a normal democratic dialectic,” he said during his August 29 homily.
“A society without babies and children, just as a society without the elderly, is seriously mutilated and unable to function.”
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Further information:
- Negative Birthrate Warps Society, Says Cardinal (Zenit)
- Italian ageing and declining population will affect consumption (Euromonitor)
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