DAR AL HARB - VATICAN: EUROPE IS LOSING HOPE IN THE FUTURE

Pope: Europe is losing faith in the future

Europe is going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history, said the pope, signaling dismay over the birth dearth in the European Union. Poland has lowest birth rate, while uptick in Italy is due to immigrants.

By Martin Barillas


Europe appears to be losing faith in its own future, Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday, warning against "dangerous individualism" on a continent where many people are having fewer children.

Pope Benedict XVI warned on March 24 that Europe appears to be losing faith in the future. “One must unfortunately note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history," said the pope to bishops assembled to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Rome, an event that 50 years ago marked an important step towards today’s European Union.

Worried about Europe’s declining population trends and its “demographic profile”, the pontiff said that “besides putting economic growth at risk, can also cause enormous difficulties for social cohesion, and, above all, favor dangerous individualism, careless about the consequences for the future." Furthermore, said the pope,"You could almost think that the European continent is in fact losing faith in its own future," Benedict said.

In countries like Italy and Spain, traditionally Catholic but which now show considerable influx of Muslim immigrants from Africa and non-Catholic Christians from Europe, many married couple have but one or no children. In 2001, the fertility rate in Italy dropped to 1.25 children per women of childbearing age. Howe, with the last few years seeing a small turnaround, mainly due to births to immigrants.

Since the replacement rate of 2.1 children is thought necessary to prevent the decline of a population, the population of Europe is expected to decline further. Poland, according to a recent Eurostat study, now shows the lowest fertility rate in the European Union and now stands at 1.23 children per woman.

The economy is blamed in some countries like Poland where women wait to have children until it is too late. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has proposed a program to support working mothers, as well as tax exemption, so that Poland may continue as a nation. Poland’s unemployment rate is now at 14.9 percent and is the highest in the European Union. The heady days of economic expansion after the fall of communism has given way to bureaucratic road blocs to entrepreneurs, according to the Financial Times of London.

Italy's fertility rate steadily plunged to a low of 1.25 children per women of childbearing age in 2001, with the last few years seeing a small turnaround, mainly due to births to immigrants.

France, on the other hand, is experiencing a relative baby-boom. Cheap daycare, and generous policies towards parental leave for instance, are credited with the emboldened fertility rate in France. Its fertility rate now stands at 2.0 per woman.


What this author fails to mention is that the 'baby boom' in France is the result of its huge (largest in Europe) moslem population...


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