The winter of Europe

The family and the declining birth rates in Europe were the themes at the centre of plenary meeting of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) held in Zagreb September 30 to October 3rd. Demographic winter. “Europe is entering a phase of demographic winter”, said Msgr. Carlos Simón Vázquez, Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family in his address to the presidents of the European Bishops’ Conferences that dedicated the first part of the CCEE plenary meeting to the family and to Europe’s downward birth rates. The Under-Secretary presented European bishops with the results of a survey which show that the fertility rate across Europe has fallen below 2.0 per woman. The picture is less worrying in Countries with strong immigration (Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Scotland, Spain…). Those Countries unmarked by immigration flows, i.e. Eastern Europe, are undergoing rapid population ageing. Population ageing is expected to be high in Slovenia, whose fertility rate if of 1.2 and where 40% of the overall population is over-65. The highest fertility rate was recorded in Iceland (2.2), the lowest in Slovakia (1.22). The Plenary Assembly examined demography figures: except for France, Sweden, and Iceland, whose fertility-rate is over 2.0 per woman, the mean fertility rate in Europe is of 1.52. According to figures 41% of European families have no children, 27% have only one child, 24% have two children while only 6% of European families have three children. There is an increasing number of out-of-wedlock births, which in certain areas of Northern and Eastern Europe amount to over 50% of all births. Acknowledging the challenge. “Demographic challenges require an urgent spiritual transformation”, remarked Msgr. Vázquez, for whom “the family represents the true social and human capital”, which “is capable not only of contributing to society the force of human life. It is also the training-ground where are learned the fundamental relations critical to world progress and where are apprehended those social virtues which contribute to the formation of citizens capable of building a more equal and human world marked by solidarity”. And he concluded: “it is necessary to acknowledge this challenge”. Too many abortions. Europe is ageing. It’s the continent where old people outnumber the youth. Its demographic season is “winter”, and migration is the only source of population growth. That is the snapshot of the demographic state of our continent presented by Lola Velarde, president of the European network of the Institute for Family Policies. With the help of slides and flow-charts the sociologist presented an ever-ageing continent with 3.4 million more old people than children and where 29 million are over-80, amounting to 4% of European population. The figures show that migration flows are the only source of European population growth: 9 out of 10 new citizens are migrants. This means that over the past 2 years out of 3.4 million new European inhabitants, 3 million were migrants: only 340 thousand represent “natural growth”. Germany is the Country with the highest number of migrants (1.7 million people), followed by Spain (5.6 million), the United Kingdom (4 million), Italy (3.9 million) and France (3.7 million). Every year 8.4 million children are born in Europe, and figures indicate a very low fertility rate (1.56 in EU27; 1.41 in Russia and 1.52 in Ukraine). Another interesting figure is that 1 every 3 children is born “out of wedlock” and that in Countries such as Iceland, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, France and Slovenia, out-of-wedlock births outnumber those inside of wedlock. Abortion-related figures were also presented in Zagreb: 2.9 million abortions were practiced in Europe in 2008. This means – the scholar said – there is an abortion every 11 seconds, 327 abortions per hour and 7.468 abortions per day”.Pro-life initiatives. In Europe there are “men and women who have organized themselves to promote family values, to consolidate marriage bonds and the defense of life”, affirmed Lituanian doctor Virgilijus Rudzinskas. The physician provided updated information on initiatives for the family and for the promotion of life across Europe. These include the European Institute for Family Education, an umbrella organization representing European bodies whose activities are aimed at providing support and assistance to the families; the “Saint Benedict Project”, consisting in a series of meetings held in regions across Europe on the theology of love through formation on natural methods; the master program on “Conjugal fertility and sexuality”, promoted by the Pontifical Institute John Paul II (Rome’s Lateran University) in conjunction with the Catholic University of Rome. These initiatives – the doctor said – “give new hope for a better promotion of the Church message for the family” which involves teachers, spouses, associations, who are “yearning to contribute to this mission: the construction of the civilization of love and the defense of the family”.