Politics
Monday July 14, 2008
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WYD Focuses on Healthy Sexuality and an Openness to Life
Cardinal Pell: "No western country is producing enough babies to keep the population stable."
By Tim Waggoner
SYDNEY, July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a press conference welcoming Pope Benedict to WYD 2008 in Australia, the head of the Catholic Church of the nation, Cardinal George Pell, addressed the declining birth rate prevalent in all Western countries, which he said he believes is the result of "ruthless commercial forces."
"There is a crisis in the Western world," said Cardinal Pell, as reported by News.com.au.
"No Western country is producing enough babies to keep the population stable. In many cases there is an increase in divorces, an increase in serial monogamy," said Cardinal Pell, who is the Archbishop of Sydney.
Referring specifically to the Catholic Church in Australia, Cardinal Pell said that there are two challenges facing Australians.
"One is the Australian temptation to believe that you can have a good, happy life without God," he said.
"And the second challenge revolves around the concept of sexuality, marriage and family."
The cardinal said that the youth are bombarded by erroneous messages on sexuality, largely in media.
"Ruthless commercial forces are telling young people that this is the way forward, this is the modern way and they remain total silent on the difficulties and damage this does to family life," he said.
The archbishop went on to suggest that the high youth suicide rates in Australia reflect the dangers of these modern notions.
"It's a danger sign. It's a great paradox," he said.
"We have a wonderful society here in Australia, in many ways a lot of justice, and yet we have the third or fourth highest rate of youth male suicide in the world."
"The basic Christian response to that is to say that our young people need faith and hope and love, and that we will make the situation worse by irresponsibly encouraging them into promiscuity or drugs or alcohol," Cardinal Pell said.
"That's only a prison. There's no escape if people flee resolutely in that direction," he added.
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