Earlier today,
Pope Benedict XVI beatified Eurosia Fabris, known as "Mamma Rosa", an Italian woman who raised 11 children--nine of them her own. In the Catholic Church, beatification is the last formal step before sainthood.
Mamma Rosa's beatification is part of the Vatican's latest campaign--namely, encouraging couples to raise large families. Several days earlier, the pope praised such families and called for countries to approve legislation and other incentives to help them. He has described large families as useful witnesses to "faith, courage and optimism" in society.
Even if you don't think the Earth is overpopulated as it is, there are a couple of disturbing aspects to the pope's "be fruitful and multiply" campaign.
To begin with, there are racist undertones. The average European woman has 1.5 children; and, strangely, the fertility rate is even lower in the traditionally Catholic countries of Italy and Spain. Some figures on the European Right warn that unless white couples have more children, they will be outnumbered by Muslims. In this country, Pat Buchanan has said in so many words that unless white couples have more children, our culture will drown in a wave of foreigners.
There's another problem with the pope's message: he'd like to see couples who raise large families get tax breaks and other financial incentives. But where does one draw the line between incentives and fiscal coercion? Tax breaks for children could in effect become a surtax on the unmarried and childless. Incentives also could open the door to even worse measures: a ban on abortion, restrictions on contraception, and even higher barriers to women going to college and working.
Prediction: Low birth rates will become the Right's next big battle in the Culture Wars.