By John-Henry Westen
NEW YORK, April 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Pope Benedict XVI’s representative to the United Nations, addressed the 39th session of the Commission on Population and Development yesterday delivering a stinging criticism about the UN population control agenda.“In years gone by,” explained the Archbishop, “dire predictions as to the future composition and sustainability of the projected human global population led to radical population policies which have in turn been responsible for different but equally grave dilemmas such as the serious problems brought about by falling birth rates, and the creation of imbalances between men and women in the population, with its own social consequences.”
“If the development of the world’s peoples is to be both sustainable and sane,” continued Archbishop Migliore, “such flawed policies will have to be replaced by truly people-centred ones.”
Despite the clamour for population control which still comes from the abortion-pushing United Nations Population Fund, another branch of the United Nations reports in a largely unbiased fashion on population trends and has warned for years that underpopulation rather than overpopulationÂis of great concern.Â
As early as 1999 (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/1999/jun/99063003.html ) the United Nations population division was warning about one of the hazards of underpopulation, that of an ageing population which results from a low birth rate, and has disastrous effects on social security and health care.Â
In 2002, the UN convened an expert group meeting to ponder declining demographics. “For decades, demographers have assumed that fertility rates in developing countries will eventually fall to replacement level—about 2 children per woman—and then stabilize at that level. However, over the past decade, more and more developing countries have joined developed countries in seeing their fertility levels fall below this replacement fertility floor, challenging the assumption that there is some inherent magnet drawing populations to a replacement-level equilibrium,” said a report on the meeting. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2002/mar/02030602.html)
In 2003 (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/feb/03020402.html ), and again in 2005 (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jan/05012710.html ) the UN’s population division issued similar reports warning of underpopulation.
The Archbishop echoed those warnings as he told the gathered world leaders, “Due to low fertility, net migration counts for three quarters of the population growth in developed countries and, by 2030, migration may account for all population growth in those countries.” He added, “Demographic shifts in populations on such a scale will surely have radical consequences for the entire composition of nations, and so a balance has to be struck between the evident benefits of migration on the one hand and a consideration of the social impact of large numbers of migrants in receiving countries, especially when they are not yet integrated, on the other.”
See the Archbishop’s full statement:
https://www.holyseemission.org/05April2006.html