One of the dioceses of the
Catholic Church in Kerala is offering
sops to believers for having more children and thus saving the Church from
extinction. This is diametrically opposite to what Pope Francis said last year:
Catholics
don’t need to breed “like rabbits.”
Catholics
have a moral responsibility to limit the number of their children, the Pope
said in no uncertain terms. The National
Catholic Reporter wrote thus about the Pope: “Telling the story of a woman he met
in a parish in Rome several months ago who had given birth to seven children
via caesarean section and was pregnant with an eighth, Francis asked: 'Does she
want to leave the seven orphans?’”
Pope Francis has always advocated
responsible parenthood. Having more children is not a service to God or the
Church or the State, he has said loud and clear. Having too many children is “irresponsible
parenthood,” according to the Pope. He went to the extent of saying, “This is
to tempt God.”
There are 7.67 billion people on the
planet and the number keeps jumping every day. Aren’t they too many? The answer
depends on your convictions.
I have never had reasons to think of
the human species as any particular blessing for the planet. On the contrary, I
am sure that the planet would have been a far better place without humans. [The
book I am now reading is Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman.
It tells me quite convincingly about the intrinsic goodness of human beings.
Yet, yet… More on that later, after I finish reading the entire book.]
The planet would have been a lot
greener, cleaner, more beautiful – a paradise, in fact – without human beings
around. That sounds rather devilish, right? Well, what shall I tell you if you
really think along with the Catholic Church that human species is the crown of
God’s creation?
It has become a fad among most
religious people nowadays to ask people to have more children. People of almost
every faith seem to be convinced that the answer to most religious problems is
having a larger population of the faithful. Copulate and Populate. And thus
beat your rival religion. It is not only the Catholics who are saying that.
I wish at least a fraction of these
believers really followed the good lessons of their religions. The world would
have been a much better place.
Religion is one of the biggest evils
if you study it seriously. It has divided people into groups that hate one
another. It has fostered superstitions and ignorance and cruelty of all sorts. Even
this demand for having more children is a sign of ignorance and cruelty and, as
the Pope said, irresponsibility.
I know I sound like a misanthrope.
Maybe I am. But I don’t do any of the harms – neither to other people nor to
the planet – that people do in the name of gods. I do my best to mitigate the
evils created by gods and their supporters. But I know that if you don’t belong
to the majority you are a loser nowadays. Let that be. I only hope that the
believers will turn a deaf ear to the new commandment from their priests about
having more children just as they usually do with most commandments.
WELL SAID TOMICHAN SIR👏👏
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Deletetaking the bull by the horns as usual Tomichan, its a wonder that the right /left or whichever appropriate guardians of social moral have not landed on your back yard yet.
ReplyDeleteOne good thing about Kerala is that it generally lets you have your opinions. I have been lucky so far to be on that 'general' side.
DeleteIf given implementation, i believe, it has the potential to increase the rate of women slaughtering a daily incident there. Women there stand a little above the men in the civic sense, who may not cooperate with the men to increase the number of produce, and would invite their wrath to lose lives.
ReplyDeleteNothing is going to change. Contraception is a sin according to Church. But is there any Catholic couple that obeys the church in this regard? People are not as foolish as the priests think. People are plain hypocrites.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with you on this one - unbelieveable initiative of the church within India - the most poplous of countries anyway! That too against the Pope's direction. Defies all logic... YAM xx
Kerala is one of the most populous states in India. The priests should have more sense than to ask people to add mindlessly to the existing density.
Delete