Tuesday Conference

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Theology e-magazine

To make humanity united in worshipping God

Is Reducing Population An Answer ?

Our Heavenly Patron

Dear Father,
The 4th issue of Tuesday Conference reaches you
with an article on World Population Day as we celebrate it on
July 11. No one knows population related issues to the core with
absolute certainty. Even studies are biased or funded for the
differing causes they uphold.
Tuesday Conference makes an attempt to know the reality
behind these arguments and tries to respond with the help of
Catholic teachings from 1960 to the present day. We acknowledge
the population related issues and in no way belittle the threat
humanity faces. However, is reducing population an answer to the
problem of hunger, poverty and unemployment? If so, then we
are missing the point.
It is very alarming to see governments in many
countries launching systematic campaigns against

birth. It often happens that these campaigns are the

result of pressure and financing coming from abroad.
-John Paul II

We blame poverty on scarcity and overpopulation. But

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seldom do we look at human behaviour itself.

Introduction
Seldom do we
look at the laws
created by

humans prevent

World Population Day is a great event being celebrated all

through the world annually on 11th of July. It is celebrated to
increase the awareness of the people towards the worldwide
population issues. It was first started in the year 1989 by the
Governing Council of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).

ing starving
people from
having access
to food, land, or

the obvious

Theme: Investing in teenage girls.

uneven
distribution of

This is the theme chosen for this year by the UN. Teenage
girls around the world face enormous challenges.

resources

Many are considered by their communities or parents to be

caused by the
greed of the
minority.

ready for marriage and motherhood.

Many are forced from school, damaging their future .

Even for girls who stay in school, access to basic information

about their health, sex is limited

Human rights and reproductive rights are violated, leaving

them vulnerable to illness, injury and exploitation.
When teenage girls are empowered, and when they know
about their rights and are given the tools to succeed, they
become agents of positive change in their communities.
Marginalized girls are vulnerable to poor reproductive health and more likely to
become mothers while still children themselves. They have a right to understand
and control their own bodies and shape their own lives.

The United States and other developed countries

consciously set out in the 1960s to engineer a radical
decline in Third World fertility.

Page - 03

Around 1.8

Objectives of the Day:

billion

Stop child marriage,

youngsters are

Curb adolescent pregnancy,

Delay marriages till they become able to understand their

responsibilities,

Educate youths to avoid unwanted pregnancies by using

reasonable and youth friendly measures,

entering to
their
reproductive
years & we call
their attention
towards the
reproductive
health.

Educate people to remove the gender stereotypes from

society.
Statistics shows that around 15 million women of the age
15-19 give birth every year and around 4 million go in for
abortion.

Around 800 women are dying

daily in the procedure of giving
birth. The campaign of the
World Population Day every
year increases the knowledge
and skills of the people
worldwide towards their
reproductive health and family
planning.

Depopulation Movement????
Yes. Conspir acy theor ies about depopulation of the earth come in a
number of flavours. There is an imminent plan to reduce population using an
overpopulation crisis as the pretext. The elite thus need to kill off the useless eaters.
No. Gover nm ents h ave im plem ented policies and pr actices to
encourage population growth or discourage it. That makes one wonder why a
government that's supposedly involved in some grand plot to depopulation is trying
to get people to have more children and not fewer. Conspiracy theorists are
commonly uncommunicative in trying to explain that.

Page - 04

To blame population growth instead of extreme and

selective consumerism on the part of some, is one way of
refusing to face the issues. -Laudato Si

The Overpopulation Scare: How It All Started

Thomas Robert Malthus w as the fir st econom ist
to propose a systematic theory of population. He articulated
his views regarding population in his famous book.
He proposes the principle that human populations grow
exponentially (i.e., doubling with each cycle) while food
production grows at an arithmetic rate. Thus, while food
output was likely to increase in the arithmetic progression 1,
2, 3, 4 and so on, population was capable of increasing in the
geometric progression 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and so forth.
This predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on. Again
In 1968, Paul Ehrlich pr opagated Malth us theory of overpopulation in his
work The Population Bomb .

Debunking the myth of Over Population

1 Rapid population growth keeps poor countries poor.
In 1960s S. Korea and Taiwan were poor countries with fast-growing populations.
But their economic growth averaged 6.2% in S. Korea and 7 %in Taiwan.
Between 1900 and 2000, as the planets population was exploding, per capita
income grew faster than ever before, rising nearly fivefold.

2) Food: there isnt enough!

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Many have gloomily predicted that mankind would outbreed its food supply,
resulting in catastrophic famines. Yet the world currently produces enough food to
feed 10 billion people, and there are only 7 billion of us.
But there are still hungry people in the world! Yes, hunger remains a
problem, but it is not caused by the number of people. Famines are not natural
phenomena, they are catastrophic political failures.

3) We are running out of water!

Oceans cover 70 percent of the planets surface. we cannot use
up or destroy water; you can only change its state (from liquid to solid or gas) or
contaminate it, so that it is undrinkable.
Youre correct, lack of water is a serious humanitarian issue. We need more
dams, canals, and pipelines, not more abortions, contraception and sterilizations.

4) But were growing exponentially!

No. Were not. In fact, our rates of growth are declining. Between 1950 and
2000, the world population grew at a rate of 1.76%. Between 2000 and 2050, it is
expected to grow by 0.77 percent.

Catholic Teaching
1) Mater et Magistra, Pope
John XXIII, 1961.
We clearly affirm that these
problems should be resolved in such a
way that man does not have recourse
to methods and means contrary to his
dignity.

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It is parents
alone who
must take a
thorough
look at the

matter and
decide upon
the number
of their

2) Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI, 1967

About demographic realities, public authorities can intervene,
but only within the limits of their competence. Where the inalienable
right to marriage and procreation is lacking, human dignity has
ceased to exist.

3) Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI,1968

The pope affirms the couples mission of responsible
parenthood. Quite other is the way in which public authorities
contribute to the solution of the demographic problem.

4) Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II, 1981

Certain panic, deriving from the studies of ecologists and
futurologists on population growth, sometimes exaggerates the
danger of demographic increase to the quality of life.

children.

Consequently, any violence applied by such authorities in

Pope Paul

favour of contraception or, still worse, of sterilization and

procured abortion, must be altogether condemned and forcefully
rejected.

VI

What is Responsible Parenthood?

Pope Paul VI gave a ver y clear , concise explanation about w hat
constitutes responsible parenthood in Humanae Vitae (HV), paragraph 10:
With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions,
responsible parenthood is exercised by:

those who, for serious reasons & with due respect to moral precepts, decide not
to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time.

those who prudently and generously decide to have more parenthood

Pope Francis backed Paul VI's teaching against bir th contr ol and
urged openness to life, but reminded couples that it did not require them to be like
rabbits in order to be good Catholics.

Page - 07

Listen to our Popes...

He criticizes the
widespread opinion that
population control is the
easiest method of solving
the problem of
availability of the worlds
resources for its people.

Poverty in developing
countries is often the
result of an
underdeveloped
population, not because
of overpopulation.

He criticizes population
control as an
appropriate means to
fighting climate change
or general
environmental
degradation.

Pastoral Initiatives...
We may celebrate the world population day liturgy;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Offer symbolically all continents and dedicate them for the prosperity of man.
Highlight the Biblical message Multiply and be fruitful in homily.
Raise funds for investing in teenage girls of the parish.
Wish the biggest family of the parish.
Clarify the doubts about contraception, family planning in family units.
Encourage people to take pro life pledge.

Conclusion
We conclude stating the balanced view that those
who consider themselves pro-life must eventually realize
that making people breed at any price cheapens all of our
lives. And those who consider themselves pro-choice must
oppose all manipulative and coercive policies designed to
control populations. Surely we need a beautiful world to
pass on to the next generation and therefore we must
work without biased minds.
Published from Vincentian Vidyabhavan, Aluva.