Rome, Italy, Jun 15, 2014 / 03:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a visit to a community dedicated to serving the poor and needy, Pope Francis warned of the poverty of Europe which faces a declining birthrate, hidden forms of euthanasia, and high rates of unemployment. …
“The treatment of the elderly, as that of children, is an indicator showing the quality of a society. When the elderly are discarded, when the elderly are isolated and sometimes closed off without affection, it’s a bad sign!” he exclaimed. …
“The elderly and their prayers are a richness for St. Egidio. A people that does not safeguard its elderly, that does not take care of its young people, is a people without a future, a people without hope. Because the youth – the children, the young people – and the elderly carry history forward.”
He noted that although young people provide “biological strength” for society, the elderly “give them their memory.”
“When a society loses memory, it’s over. It’s finished. It’s terrible to see a society, a people, a culture that has lost memory,” he lamented.
An economic world which holds “the idol of money” at its center rather than “man and woman,” risks becoming a “throw-away culture,” Pope Francis warned.
“Children are thrown away: no children. Just think of the growth rate of children in Europe: in Italy, Spain, France. The elderly are thrown away with these attitudes, behind which is a hidden euthanasia, a form of euthanasia: uselessness. That which isn’t useful is thrown away.”
“And today the crisis is so great that young people are discarded: when we think of these 75 million young people of 25 years or younger, who are ‘neither-nor’ – neither working, nor studying. Without. It happens today, in this tired Europe, eh?”
The Pope went on to criticize a “speculative economy” which makes the poor “more and more poor, depriving them of the essentials, such as home and work.”
He noted the importance of solidarity – a word which “many want to remove it from the dictionary, eh? Because to a certain culture seems to be a dirty word. Oh no: it is a Christian word, solidarity!” he exclaimed.
There is much depth in the few words said above. I would simply comment that the Pope wants people to be more Latin American, rather than the simply Mexican that the comic above says, GRIN. Remember that he comes from Argentina.
Pope Francis has well pointed out how both ends of the spectrum are being cut off in Europe. Europe currently has a declining birth rate that means that it will not replace its own population. There is a type of selfishness that is willing to let entire cultures die rather than having the burden of caring for children. There is a type of selfishness that cuts off the elderly in retirement homes rather than having them live among us and be a regular part of our lives. [Yes, there are a few cases where it really is necessary to institutionalize an elderly person, but they are far fewer than the population of institutionalized elderly people.]
Euthanasia is a hot topic in parts of Europe today. By 2012, 10 years after the first of the physician-assisted suicide laws passed, more than 3% of all deaths in the Netherland were by euthanasia. Meantime in nearby Luxemburg, the euthanasia death rate is 0.3%, significantly lower. Abortion is no longer a topic over there, save rarely. The statistics point out the danger that, as Pope Francis alluded to, once you begin to depreciate the value of one end of society, you end up devaluing the other end of society. [Please note that there is a significant difference between euthanasia and palliative care: the one simply disposes of a person, the other walks with a person through their final hours providing them pain relief and dignity.] Elective abortion does not lead to euthanasia. It is not a cause and effect issue. But elective abortion begins to change the moral climate of a nation, leading to an openness to consider other immoralities.
Thus, a nation which considers its children as discardable fetuses until they are born will soon be willing to consider other people as discardable. It is no surprise to me that the lack of care for the poor, the willingness to allow the minimum wage to drop below any semblance of a living wage, the willingness to allow working wages to stagnate while executive wages rise out of proportion to production, the willingness to allow entire industries to stock their workforce with part-time workers to avoid having too many full-time workers, and the willingness to allow large portions of the population to have no medical care, are found in this country which allows elective abortion. Euthanasia is almost a minor issue, although it will turn up in this country eventually as the next strong battle. Once you begin to think of any part of your people as discardable, you will soon have discardable people all around. The Pope is right.
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