Cardinal Mercier’s ‘The Duties of Married Life’, a Pastoral Letter from 1909, gives excellent advice that’s become even more relevant over the last century.
‘Dastardly propaganda’
Does this sound familiar?
‘A dastardly propaganda, carried on by means of lectures, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and practical demonstrations, encourages the suppression of childbearing and induces parents to adopt homicidal practices in circumstances and to an extent hitherto unheard of…And, little by little, into every class of society there filters a series of rotten, unwholesome ideas, which threaten danger to the unborn child, if they do not render parenthood wholly contemptible. Before long, child-bearing will be viewed, not as a duty, but as a burden so inconvenient that it may be — perhaps ought to be — thrown off.’
As I have drawn attention to elsewhere, a falling fertility rate is throughout history the main sign of a collapsing civilisation.
Cardinal Mercier also stresses another familiar theme: male failure.
‘Have fathers of families displayed the watchfulness they should in bringing to justice the ruffians who, relying on our natural propensity to vice, are endeavouring to deluge decent homes with filthy literature?’
Muslim mothers protesting LGBTQ lessons outside schools, for example, have recently shown more courage than many Christian fathers.