In Rome on Friday, Italy's prime minister, Mario Draghi, and Pope Francis were the star attendees at a special conference to discuss the country's declining birthrate.

According to the latest figures, 2020 saw the lowest number of births recorded since the Italian unification in 1861.

Spain is ageing at a similar pace, as is much of eastern Europe.

In Britain, it is the same story.

The Centre for Population Change recently predicted a post-pandemic decline in annual births, deepening a secular trend that has already taken the birthrate to "historically low levels".

The social implications of these downward trajectories, exacerbated by Covid, are many and various.

Assuming current demographic trends continue, Eurostat has calculated that the number of European over-65s will have grown by over 40% by 2050.

Fewer people will be in work paying taxes when their pension and care bills arrive.

Against that backdrop, right-wing nationalist parties fantasising about a future without migrant labour may as well howl at the moon.

Immigration seems likely to continue to be a structural necessity in western democracies, as well as a source of innovation and renewal.

But this is about more than the big picture.

For many young people, one of the most fundamental sources of human fulfilment - parenthood - is being delayed or forgone out of economic necessity.

Procreation should not be seen as a moral obligation, let alone as a patriotic duty.

Since the 1960s, with the rise of contraception, declining western birthrates have been partly a result of greater freedom for women to shape and control their own lives.

But starting a family should be a far easier option than it has become.

Even in Scandinavia, rightly held up as a model when it comes to parental leave and accessible childcare, alarm bells are ringing.

The Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, has warned that one of Europe's best-funded welfare states could only be socially and economically sustainable if people had more children.

In Sweden, the annual number of births has consistently fallen for over a decade, constituting a new and worrying trend according to the country's leading demographers. Continue reading

Source

• Editorial: The Guardian

Severe depopulation upset the socio-economic feudal system of the time but the experience of the plague itself affected every aspect of people's lives.

Disease on an epidemic scale was simply part of life in the Middle Ages but a pandemic of the severity of the Black Death had never been experienced before and, afterwards, there was no way for the people to resume life as they had previously known it.

The Black Death altered the fundamental paradigm of European life in the following areas:

• Socio-Economic
• Medical Knowledge and Practice
• Religious Belief and Practice
• Persecution and Migration
• Women's Rights
• Art and Architecture

Before the plague, the feudal system rigidly divided the population in a caste system of the king at the top, followed by nobles and wealthy merchants, with the peasants (serfs) at the bottom.

Medical knowledge was received without question from doctors who relied on physicians of the past and the Catholic Church was considered an even higher authority on spiritual matters.

Women were largely regarded as second-class citizens and the art and architecture of the time reflected the people's belief in a benevolent God who responded to prayer and supplication.

Life at this time was by no means easy, or even sometimes pleasant, but people knew - or thought they knew - how the world worked and how to live in it; the plague would change all that and usher in a new understanding which found expression in movements such as the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance.

The plague ran rampant among the lower class who sought shelter and assistance from friaries, churches, and monasteries, spreading the plague to the clergy, and from the clergy it spread to the nobility.

Arrival, spread and effect of the Plague

The plague came to Europe from the East, most probably via the trade routes known as the Silk Road overland, and certainly by ship oversea.

The Black Death - a combination of bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic plague (and also possibly a strain of murrain) - had been gaining momentum in the East since at least 1322 CE and, by c. 1343 CE, had infected the troops of the Mongol Golden Horde under the command of the Khan Djanibek (r. 1342-1357 CE) who was besieging the Italian-held city of Caffa (modern-day Feodosia in Crimea) on the Black Sea.

As Djanibek's troops died of the plague, he had their corpses catapulted over the city's walls, infecting the people of Caffa through their contact with the decomposing corpses.

Eventually, a number of the city's inhabitants fled the city by ship, first arriving at Sicilian ports and then at Marseilles and others from whence the plague spread inland.

Those infected usually died within three days of showing symptoms and the death toll rose so quickly that the people of Europe had no time to grasp what was happening, why, or what they should do about the situation.

Scholar Norman F. Cantor comments: "The plague was much more severe in the cities than in the countryside, but its psychological impact penetrated all areas of society. No one - peasant or aristocrat - was safe from the disease, and once it was contracted, a horrible and painful death was almost a certainty. The dead and dying lay in the streets, abandoned by frightened friends and relatives." (Civilization, 482)

As the plague raged on, and all efforts to stop its spread or cure those infected failed, people began to lose faith in the institutions they had relied on previously while the social system of feudalism began to crumble due to the widespread death of the serfs, those who were most susceptible as their living conditions placed them in closer contact with each other on a daily basis than those of the upper classes.

The plague ran rampant among the lower class who sought shelter and assistance from friaries, churches, and monasteries, spreading the plague to the clergy, and from the clergy it spread to the nobility.

By the time the disease had run its course in 1352 CE, millions were dead and the social structure of Europe was as unrecognizable as much of the landscape since, as Cantor notes, "many flourishing cities became virtual ghost towns for a time" (Civilization, 482) and crops lay rotting in the fields with no one to harvest them.

Socio-Economic Effects

Before the plague, the king was thought to own all the land which he allocated to his nobles. The nobles had serfs work the land which turned a profit for the lord who paid a percentage to the king.

The serfs themselves earned nothing for their labour except lodging and food they grew themselves.

Since all land was the king's, he felt free to give it as gifts to friends, relatives, and other nobility who had been of service to him and so every available piece of land by c. 1347 CE was being cultivated by serfs under one of these lords.

Europe was severely overpopulated at this time and so there was no shortage of serfs to work the land and these peasants had no choice but to continue this labour - which was, in essence, a kind of slavery - from the time they could walk until their death.

There was no upward mobility in the feudal system and a serf was tied to the land he and his family worked from generation to generation.

As the plague wore on, however, depopulation greatly reduced the workforce and the serf's labour suddenly became an important - and increasingly rare - asset.

The lord of an estate could not feed himself, his family, or pay tithes to the king or the Church without the labour of his peasants and the loss of so many meant that survivors could now negotiate for pay and better treatment.

The lives of the members of the lowest class vastly improved as they were able to afford better living conditions and clothing as well as luxury items.

Once the plague had passed, the improved lot of the serf was challenged by the upper class who were concerned that the lower classes were forgetting their place.

Fashion changed dramatically as the elite demanded more extravagant clothing and accessories to distance themselves from the poor who could now afford to dress more finely than in their previous rags and blankets.

Efforts of the wealthy to return the serf to his previous condition resulted in uprisings such as the peasant revolt in France in 1358 CE, the guild revolts of 1378 CE, the famous Peasants' Revolt of London in 1381 CE.

There was no turning back, however, and the efforts of the elite were futile. Class struggle would continue but the authority of the feudal system was broken.

Effect on medical knowledge and practice

The challenge to authority also affected received medical knowledge and practice. Doctors based their medical knowledge primarily on the work of the Roman physician Galen (l. 130-210 CE) as well as on Hippocrates (l. c. 460 - c. 370 BCE) and Aristotle (l. 384-322 BCE), but many of these works were only available in translations from Arabic copies and, often, poor ones.

Even so, the works they had were put to the best use they possibly could be. Scholar Jeffrey Singman comments: "Medieval science was far from primitive; in fact, it was a highly sophisticated system based on the accumulated writings of theorists since the first millennium BCE. The weakness of medieval science was its theoretical and bookish orientation, which emphasized the authority of accepted authors. The duty of the scholar [and doctor] was to interpret and reconcile these ancient authorities, rather than to test their theories against observed realities." (62)

Doctors and other caregivers were seen dying at an alarming rate as they tried to cure plague victims using their traditional understanding and, further, nothing they prescribed did anything for their patients.

It became clear, by as early as 1349 CE, that people recovered from the plague or died from it for seemingly no reason at all. A cure that had restored one patient to health would fail to work on the next.

After the plague, doctors began to question their former practice of accepting the knowledge of the past without adapting it to present circumstances. Scholar Joseph A. Legan writes:

"Medicine slowly began changing during the generation after the initial outbreak of Plague."

"Many leading medical theoreticians perished in the Plague, which opened the discipline to new ideas. A second cause for change was while university-based medicine failed, people began turning to the more practical surgeons…"

"With the rise of surgery, more attention was given to the direct study of the human body, both in sickness and in health. Anatomical investigations and dissections, seldom performed in pre-plague Europe, were pursued more urgently with more support from public authorities." (53)

The death of so many scribes and theoreticians, who formerly wrote or translated medical treatises in Latin, resulted in new works being written in the vernacular languages.

This allowed common people to read medical texts which broadened the base of medical knowledge. Further, hospitals developed into institutions more closely resembling those in the modern-day.

Previously, hospitals were used only to isolate sick people; after the plague, they became centres for treatment with a much higher degree of cleanliness and attention to patient care.

The extravagant lifestyle of the clergy and the mounting deaths from the plague generated widespread distrust of the Church's vision and authority.

Change in religious attitude

Doctors and theoreticians were not the only ones whose authority was challenged by the plague, however, as the clergy came under the same kind of scrutiny and inspired the same - or far greater - doubt in their abilities to perform the services they claimed to be able to.

Friars, monks, priests, and nuns died just as easily as anyone else - in some towns, religious services simply stopped because there were no authorities to lead them - and, further, the charms and amulets people purchased for protection, the services they did attend, the processions they took part in, the prayer and the fasting, all did nothing to stop the spread of the plague and, in some instances, encouraged it.

The Flagellant Movement, in which groups of penitents would travel town to town whipping themselves to atone for their sins, began in Austria and gained momentum in Germany and France. These groups, led by a self-proclaimed Master with little or no religious training, not only helped spread the plague but also disrupted communities by their insistence on attacking marginalized groups such as the Jews.

Since no one knew the cause of the plague, it was attributed to the supernatural (such as supposed Jewish sorcery) and, specifically, to God's fury over human sin.

Those who died of the plague were suspect of some personal failing of faith and yet it was clear that the same clergy who condemned them died of the same disease in the same way.

Scandals within the Church, and the extravagant lifestyle of many of the clergy, combined with the mounting deaths from the plague to generate widespread distrust of the Church's vision and authority.

Increased persecution and migration

The frustration people felt at their helplessness in the face of the plague gave rise to violent outbursts of persecution across Europe.

The Flagellant Movement was not the only source of persecution; otherwise, peaceful citizens could be whipped into a frenzy to attack communities of Jews, Romani (gypsies), lepers, or others. Women were also abused in the belief that they encouraged sin because of their association with the biblical Eve and the fall of man.

The most common targets, however, were the Jews who had long been singled out for Christian hostility. The Christian concept of the Jew as "Christ Killer" encouraged a large body of superstition which included the claim that Jews killed Christian children and used their blood in unholy rituals, that this blood was often spread by Jews on the fields around a town to cause plague, and that the Jews regularly poisoned wells in the hopes of killing as many Christians as possible.

Jewish communities were completely destroyed in Germany, Austria, and France - in spite of a bull issued by Pope Clement VI (l. 1291-1352 CE) exonerating the Jews and condemning Christian attacks on them. Large migrations of Jewish communities fled the scenes of these massacres, many of them finally settling in Poland and Eastern Europe.

Women, on the other hand, gained higher status following the plague.

Women's rights

Women, on the other hand, gained higher status following the plague.

Prior to the outbreak, women had few rights. Scholar Eileen Power writes: "In considering the characteristic medieval ideas about women, it is important to know not only what the ideas themselves were but also what were the sources from which they spring…

"In the early Middle Ages, what passed for contemporary opinion [on women] came from two sources - the Church and the aristocracy." (9)

Neither the medieval Church nor the aristocracy held women in very high regard.

Women of the lower classes could work as bakers, milkmaids, barmaids, weavers, and, of course, as labourers with their family on the estate of the lord but had no say in directing their own fate.

The lord would decide who a girl would marry, not her father, and a woman would go from being under the direct control of her father, who was subject to the lord, to the control of her husband who was equally subordinate.

Women's status had improved somewhat through the popularity of the Cult of the Virgin Mary which associated women with the mother of Jesus Christ but the Church continually emphasized women's inherent sinfulness as daughters of Eve who had brought sin into the world.

After the plague, with so many men dead, women were allowed to own their own land, cultivate the businesses formerly run by their husband or son, and had greater liberty in choosing a mate.

Women joined guilds, ran shipping and textile businesses, and could own taverns and farmlands.

Although many of these rights would be diminished later as the aristocracy and the Church tried to assert its former control, women would still be better off after the plague than they were beforehand.

Art and architecture

The plague also dramatically affected medieval art and architecture. Artistic pieces (paintings, wood-block prints, sculptures, and others) tended to be more realistic than before and, almost uniformly, focused on death.

Scholar Anna Louise DesOrmeaux comments: "Some plague art contains gruesome imagery that was directly influenced by the mortality of the plague or by the medieval fascination with the macabre and awareness of death that were augmented by the plague.

"Some plague art documents psychosocial responses to the fear that plague aroused in its victims. Other plague art is of a subject that directly responds to people's reliance on religion to give them hope." (29)

The most famous motif was the Dance of Death (also known as Danse Macabre) an allegorical representation of death claiming people from all walks of life to come with him.

As DesOrmeaux notes, post-plague art did not reference the plague directly but anyone viewing a piece would understand the symbolism. This is not to say there were no allusions to death before the plague, only that such became far more pronounced afterwards.

Architecture was similarly influenced, as noted by Cantor: "In England, there was a parallel increased austerity in architectural style which can be attributed to the Black Death - a shift from the Decorated version of French Gothic, which featured elaborate sculptures and glass, to a more spare style called Perpendicular, with sharper profiles of buildings and corners, less opulent, rounded, and effete than Decorated…

"The cause may have been economic - less capital to spend on decoration because of heavy war taxation and reduction of estate incomes because of labour shortage and higher peasants' wages." (Wake, 209)

Since peasants could now demand a higher wage, the kinds of elaborate building projects which were commissioned before the plague were no longer as easily affordable, resulting in more austere and cost-effective structures. Scholars have noted, however, that post-plague architecture also clearly resonated with the pervasive pessimism of the time and a preoccupation with sin and death.

Conclusion

It was not only the higher wages demanded by the peasant class, nor a preoccupation with death that affected post-plague architecture, however, but the vast reduction in agricultural production and demand due to depopulation which led to an economic recession.

Fields were left uncultivated and crops were allowed to rot while, at the same time, nations severely limited imports in an effort to control the spread of the plague which only worsened their economies as well as those of their former trading partners.

The widespread fear of a death one had not earned, could not see coming, and could not escape, stunned the population of Europe at the time and, once they had somewhat recovered, inspired them to rethink the way they were living previously and the kinds of values they had held.

Although little changed initially, by the middle of the 15th century CE radical changes - unimaginable only one hundred years before - were taking place throughout Europe, notably the Protestant Reformation, the agricultural shift from large-scale grain-farming to animal husbandry, the wage increase for urban and rural labourers, and the many other advances associated with the Renaissance.

Plague outbreaks would continue long after the Black Death pandemic of the 14th century CE but none would have the same psychological impact resulting in a complete reevaluation of the existing paradigm of received knowledge. Europe - as well as other regions - based its reactions to the Black Death on traditional conventions - whether religious or secular - and, when these failed, new models for understanding the world had to be created.

• Mark, Joshua J. "Effects of the Black Death on Europe." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 16, 2020. https://www.ancient.eu/article/1543/.
• Joshua Mark is a freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. Mark has lived in Greece and Germany and travelled through Egypt. He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level.

Today's Europe, where pluralism and secularism have changed the dynamic between Europe's citizens and their relationship with one of the continent's oldest institutions.

What do you think it means to be Catholic in Europe today? What are the core values that a Catholic should represent?

We must remember that for centuries Europe has been a collection of Christian countries.

After antiquity, a Christian culture was established in Europe.

From the 17th century and during the Enlightenment, particularly during the French Revolution, little by little the Church found that Europe was no longer an entirely Christian society.

It is a pluralistic society, a secular society, where there are also other beliefs.

I believe that being a Catholic in modern Europe means being part of this scenario.

It is the desire to live together while respecting others.

The Church is not here to "reconquer lost ground". This is not its mission.

To be Catholic is to be faithful to one's convictions in an environment that has changed to a pluralistic society.

This implies respect for human being and his or her beliefs.

We must always be respectful of each other, to accept the person as he or she is, without wanting to impose ourselves on an individual person or on society.

However, we have a mission inside this society.

We have convictions and values that we want to defend.

It must also be noted that there is interfaith solidarity and this is the mission of the Catholic Church.

We stand in solidarity with all those who strive for a more just and more fraternal society.

If we fight for the respect of freedom of religion, it is because we agree with secularised society, but within this society, we have values to defend.

The Catholic Church does not oppose a secularised society.

Citizens have the right to believe or not to believe and I stand for that.

What are the challenges that the Catholic Church is facing nowadays in terms of its role in Europe?

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the Church in Europe, and it's also an opportunity, because it helps us to rediscover our roots and our mission, is to wholeheartedly accept secularised society.

It must be understood that Christianity was, for a long time, the cultural religion in Europe.

Today this is no longer the case.

And it would be dangerous to go back because it is always dangerous to have one religious tradition that obtains a monopoly.

This is true for Christianity, for Islam…for any religion.

The Catholic Church must accept these new cultural circumstances.

It requires a certain conversion from the Church.

For me, personally, and I believe that also this is the case for many bishops in our Church, I see this as an opportunity as this forces us to rediscover ourselves and meet each other.

Some people say that the Catholic Church is looking for power, as in the past.

This is not true.

What we claim is the right to be who we are.

This applies to everyone, to all religions, and to non-believers too.

For us, for the Catholic Church, it was The Second Vatican Council that signalled a fundamental change regarding openness. Before Vatican II, the Church had trouble accepting modernity, but Vatican II said "it's over, a dead end.

It's fruitless and it's not the truth".

This is no reason to condemn the past, it's just that the historical circumstances have changed. It's not good to live life through nostalgia and for a past that is no longer possible. Continue reading

• Image: New Europe

This was confirmed by a survey study promoted by the US Pew Research Center on religious faith and practice in Western European countries.

The percentage of lapsed Christians is increasing and a look at the answers of the sample interviewed on abortion and same-sex marriage shows how much the culture in Europe has changed — and how unsurprising is the result of the recent Irish referendum on abortion.

The survey, conducted between April and August 2017 in 15 Western European countries, shows that 91% of the population is composed of baptized people, 81% of people who grew up as Christians, 71% of people who say they are currently Christians, with a 22% who attend religious services at least once a month.

In most cases, the adults interviewed consider themselves Christians, even if they rarely attend church.

The survey shows that non-practicing Christians (people who identify themselves as Christians, but participate in religious services only a few times a year) represent the largest share of the population in the region concerned.

In all countries except Italy, non-practicing Christians are more numerous than practicing Christians (i.e. those who participate in religious services at least once a month).

In the UK, for example, there are about three times as many lapsed, or non-practicing Christians (55%) as practicing Christians (18%), according to the definitions used in the survey.

Italy

40% of the population declares themselves to be practicing, another 40% declares themselves to be non-practicing Christians, 15% have no creed, while 5% follow other religions.

France

18% are practicing Christians, 46% are non-practicing, 28% have no creed, and 8% are of other religions.

Spain

21% are practicing Christians, 44% are non-practicing, 30% have no creed, 4% are of other religions.

While claiming not to believe in God "as described in the Bible," many non-practicing Christians tend to believe in some other higher power or spiritual strength.

In contrast, most practicing Christians claim to believe in the Biblical description of God.

And a clear majority of adults who do not recognize themselves in any religion do not believe in any kind of higher power or spiritual strength in the universe.

According to the study, Christian identity in Western Europe is associated with more negative opinions towards immigrants and religious minorities.

Overall, those who profess to be Christians, whether they attend the Church or not, are more likely than those who do not recognize themselves in any religion to express negative opinions towards immigrants, as well as towards Muslims and Jews.

The clear majority of non-practicing Christians, such as those who do not recognize themselves in any religion in Western Europe, are in favor of legal abortion and same-sex marriage.

Practicing Christians are more conservative on these issues, although within this segment there is substantial support (majoritarian in some countries) for legal abortion and same-sex marriage. Continue reading

• Image: The Art Story

They called the event "(Re)Thinking Europe." Pope Francis was one of the many speakers. A theme emerged from what they had to say: Religion is still essential to Europe. Read more

A pair of hands gripped his throat. He shouted. It was raining, and the clatter of the drops muffled his cries, so he shouted louder. At last, people from neighboring tents came running, and the assailants disappeared.

Wasil had left his mother and younger siblings in Kunduz, Afghanistan, ten months earlier, in December, 2015. His father, an interpreter for NATO forces, had fled the country after receiving death threats from the Taliban.

Later, Wasil, as the eldest son, became the Taliban's surrogate target. Wasil was close to his mother, but she decided to send him away as the situation became increasingly dangerous. Her brother lived in England, and she hoped that Wasil could join him there.

To get to Calais, Wasil had travelled almost four thousand miles, across much of Asia and Europe, by himself. Along the way, he had survived for ten days in a forest with only two bottles of water, two biscuits, and a packet of dates to sustain him.

Before leaving home, he hadn't even known how to prepare a meal.

Wasil was stunned by the conditions of the Jungle. The camp, a forty-acre assemblage of tents, situated on a vast windswept sandlot that had formerly served as a landfill, didn't seem fit for human habitation.

"I did not come here for luxury," Wasil told me, in excellent English, which he had learned from his father. "But I can't believe this is happening in Europe."

A chemical plant loomed nearby. There was no running water, and when it rained the refugees' tents filled with mud and the camp's rudimentary roads became impassable. Continue reading

Sources

• Article by Lauren Collins in The New Yorker
• Image: My Catbird Seat

Now some of the numbers are coming to light of the change in European states' population make-up over the past year. The Pew Research Center has analysed the change in the percentage of European nations' population that is "foreign-born", drawing on UN and Eurostat data.

From July 2015 to May 2016, more than one million people applied for asylum in Europe. (I assume that the data is available only for those migrants who are officially recognised and not those who have "vanished".)

First off, this number of one million in all of Europe seems low: didn't over one million claim asylum in Germany alone last year? Perhaps it is down to the time frame…

Anyway, during the time in question, the foreign born populations of four European countries grew at one percent or over: Sweden (an increase of 1.5% to 18.3%); Hungary (1.3% up to 5.8%); Austria (1.1% up to 18.5%); and Norway (1% up to 15.3%).

As the Pew Research Centre notes, this may not seem like a lot, but the immigrant share of the population in the United States grew by one percent over a decade (13% in 2005 to 14% in 2015).

A one percent increase in a single year is rare, particularly in the West. Other significant rises were seen in Finland (up 0.8% to 6.5%), Switzerland (up 0.8% to 30.1%), Belgium (up 0.8% to 13%) and Germany (up 0.7% to 15.6%).

At the other end, five European nations saw the foreign born proportion of their populations decline slightly: Lithuania; Spain; Slovenia; Estonia; and Latvia. Slovenia is interesting since it lies right on the route between the Balkans and Germany; its attempts to shut down its borders were obviously successful.

Apparently many of the foreign born Latin Americans returned home from Spain last year and many of the ageing immigrant community in the Baltic states are starting to die. Continue reading

Sources

• MercatorNet article by Marcus Roberts who has just started a new job teaching contract law at Auckland University.
• Image: Aljazeera

But we seem to be suffering from a pernicious anaemia of the spirit that drags us down from inside. There are many symptoms of this decline but the most deadly is that we are losing the will to breed. Birth rates in all 28 EU countries are now below replacement rates and all indigenous populations are in decline.

What greater sign could there be that our civilisation is dying than the fact that the majority of Europeans have insufficient zest in life to replace themselves? Civilisation can struggle on even in difficult circumstances, but it can hardly survive without people.

Basic biology and simple arithmetic tell us that in order to keep the population of a country constant, it is necessary for each woman to give birth to 2.1 children but, for many years the birth rates in the 28 states that currently constitute the EU have been below replacement rate.

The cumulative births per woman in the 28 states are as follows (the first number in the brackets is the 1960 birth rate, the second is the 2014 birth rate; where only one number is noted it is the 2014 birth rate): Belgium (2.54, 1.74), Bulgaria (2.31, 1.53), Czech Republic (2.09, 1.53), Denmark (2.57, 1 .69), Germany (1.47), Estonia (1.98, 1.54), Ireland (3.78, 1.94), Greece (2.23, 1.3), Spain (1.32), France (2.01), Croatia (1.46), Italy (2.37,1.37), Cyprus (1.46), Latvia (1.65), Lithuania (1.63), Luxembourg (2.29,1.5), Hungary (2.02,1.44), Malta (1.42), the Netherlands (3.12,1.71), Austria (2.69, 1.47), Poland (1.32), Portugal (3.16, 1.23), Romania (1.52), Slovenia (1.58), Slovakia (3.04,1.37), Finand (2.72, 1.71), Sweden (1.88), the UK (1.81). The average birth rate in the 28 states in 2014 was 1.56.

European societies increasingly are no longer self-sustaining. For example, if current trends continue, every new generation of Spaniards will be 40 per cent smaller than the previous one. In Italy the percentage of the population over 65 will increase from 2.7 per cent now to 18.8 per cent in 2050.

By 2060 the population of Germany is projected to drop from 81 million to 67 million, and the UN projects that by 2030 the percentage of Germans in the workforce will drop by 7 per cent to 54 per cent . In order to compensate for this shortage Germany needs to absorb 533,000 immigrants per year, which puts Angela Merkel's current immigration policy into context. Continue reading

• William Reville is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Public Awareness of Science Officer at University College Cork, and the Science Today columnist for The Irish Times.

Cardinal Dominik Duka, the archbishop of Prague, spoke about the crisis in an interview with a Czech newspaper.

"The sensitivity of Pope Francis on social issues is different from ours in Europe," Cardinal Duka said.

"Pope Francis is popular and there are different sources of his popularity. He also comes from Latin America where the gap between rich and poor is much bigger."

Cardinal Duka said that the Pope's recent trip to Greece to meet refugees and to take two families back to Rome with him did not have enough substance, The Tablet reported.

"It was just a gesture. When the media show the Pope meeting refugees on Lampedusa, I'd cry as well and say: we have to help these people.

"However, this is not a full solution."

The cardinal directed most of his criticism for the refugee crisis towards the German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European federalists for pressing a "welcoming culture" of accepting refugees from Middle East.

This approach is is dividing European societies and endangering their safety, he charged.

"I think that a large proportion of responsibility for this fear must be borne by those people who say: we have to accept all (refugees)," the cardinal said.

He warned against accepting large numbers of refugees from the Middle East and a "completely different culture and civilisation".

He added that Europe is not able to integrate them and these attempts could cause "enormous humanitarian and economic catastrophe".

The best solution for these refugees is to "re-establish state apparatus in their country of origin in order to ensure their life in dignity at home".

Contrasting Francis with the last two popes, Cardinal Duka said that a deep rooted understanding of the history of Europe is vital.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic Herald

On Friday, Francis gave a thunderous speech after accepting the prestigious German Charlemagne Prize, which is for "services of Western European understanding and work for the community".

The Pontiff criticised a "resignation and weariness that do not belong to the soul of Europe".

He asked of Europe three times "What has happened to you"?

Echoing the famous "I have a dream" speech by US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Francis offered his vision of Europe.

"I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime but a summons to greater commitment on behalf of the dignity of every human being," Francis said.

"I dream of a Europe that promotes and protects the rights of everyone, without neglecting its duties towards all," he continued later.

"I dream of a Europe of which it will not be said that its commitment to human rights was its last utopia."

The Pope said this at a ceremony attended by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In his speech, Pope Francis urged Europeans to undergo a "memory transfusion", citing a phrase by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, to remember Europe's fractured past when confronting issues that threaten again to divide it.

The Pope urged the birth of a "new humanism" based on capacities to integrate, dialogue, and generate.

He strongly condemned current calls for uniformity, or arguing against integration of new ideas or peoples.

He also said youth unemployment was sapping the continent of its dynamism, and he called for new economic models that are "more inclusive and equitable".

Francis urged European leaders to reject calls for re-nationalisation, to remember the devastating history that preceded their unification, and to "build bridges and tear down walls" in the face of the continuing migrant crisis.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Associated Press
• Zenit (Text of the Pope's address)
• Image: Zenit

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press office, said the invitation for the pope to visit the island came from Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and Greek president Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

A Vatican statement released on April 7 said Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Jerome II of Athens and Greece will join the pontiff during the visit.

Lombardi said that through the visit Pope Francis will call "all communities of believers to solidarity and responsibility" in the face of a "situation of intense suffering."

Hundreds of thousands of refugees, many fleeing conflict in North Africa and the Middle East, are staying on the Greek island since their arrival in Europe in the past year.

The Vatican has earlier criticized a plan to deport illegal migrants from Greece and return them to Turkey.

Lombardi said the pope's visit to Lesbos is "an initiative of all the Christian churches together."

There is still no schedule for the trip, but the Vatican spokesman it will be a "brief" visit.

Sources

Catholic News Agency
The Wall Street JournalThe Guardian
Image: The Wall Street Journal

The pontiff on Sunday announced that there will be special collections on April 24 in all European Catholic churches to "alleviate the material needs" of all who are suffering "the consequences of the violence" in Ukraine.

"I urge the faithful to support this papal initiative with generous contributions," said Pope Francis.

He said his thoughts were with "those who remain in areas hit by hostilities that have already caused several thousand deaths and those — over a million — who have been forced to leave."

The pope made the call on April 3 after celebrating the Mass on Divine Mercy at St. Peter's Square.

Pope Francis said "thousands" have already been killed in Ukraine and "more than a million" have had to leave their homes.

As of mid-2015, there were some 1.4 million internally displaced persons in Ukraine.

The pontiff has also asked Catholic dioceses around the world to set up a permanent memorial of the Year of Mercy by establishing a hospital, home for the aged or school in an under-served area.

"As a reminder, a 'monument' let's say, to this Year of Mercy, how beautiful it would be if in every diocese there were a structural work of mercy: a hospital, a home for the aged or abandoned children, a school where there isn't one, a home for recovering drug addicts — so many things could be done," the pope said.

Reciting the "Regina Coeli" prayer at the end of Mass the next day, Pope Francis said the Divine Mercy Sunday celebration was "like the heart of the Year of Mercy."

God's mercy should drive people to love others, "recognizing the face of Jesus Christ above all in those who are most distant, weak, alone, confused and marginalized," he said.

"It pains the heart" when people talk about refugees and say, "Let's throw them out," or speak about the poor and say, "Let them sleep on the street," the pope said. "Is this of Jesus?"

Sources

Catholic News Service
NDTV
America Magazine
Vatican Radio
Image: AP/Vatican Radio

"Even as every form of justice is denied to him, Jesus also experiences, in his own flesh, indifference," the pope said.

"Since no one wishes to take responsibility for his fate, I am thinking of so many other people, so many marginalized people, so many asylum seekers, so many refugees."

"There are so many who don't want to take responsibility for their destiny," said Pope Francis at the observance of Palm Sunday, which marks the start of Holy Week.

The pontiff abandoned the prepared text of his homily to lament Europe's handling of the influx of migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing war, persecution or poverty from Syria, Iraq, Africa and elsewhere.

Palm Sunday commemorates the joyful welcome of Jesus to Jerusalem before he was betrayed, crucified, and resurrected, according to Christian teachings.

"Jesus also suffered on his own skin indifference, because no one wanted to take on the responsibility for his destiny," said Pope Francis.

"And I am thinking of so many people, so many on the margins, so many refugees" for whom "many don't want to assume responsibility for their destiny," he said in a clear reference to Europe's migration debate.

EU and Turkish officials have made a deal to send back to Turkey migrants now arriving on Greek islands. The action was supposed to begin on Sunday.

Sources

Huffington Post
Reuters
Daily Mail
AP/The Herald News
Image: Reuters/Daily Mail

The pontiff said a "unanimous response" from European countries is needed to "share the burden fairly."

"The plight of refugees fleeing wars and other inhuman situations has always been present in my prayer, and yours," said Pope Francis after his Sunday address in Saint Peter's Square.

He praised Greece for offering the displaced people "generous assistance," but added that the situation "requires the cooperation of all nations."

The pope said "a unified response can be effective."

"For this we need to focus firmly and unreservedly on the negotiations," he said, referring to recent debates on the "equitable" relocation of migrants throughout European Union countries.

Last year, the pontiff urged Catholic institutions in Europe to take in one refugee family, calling the request "a concrete gesture in preparation for the Holy Year of Mercy."

More than a million migrants arrived in Europe last year to seek safe refuge.

Germany received the highest number of migrants in 2015 with more than 476,000. Hungary received over 177,130 applications in December.

Last month, Pope Francis said Europe should find "the right balance between its twofold moral responsibility to protect the rights of its citizens and to ensure assistance and acceptance to migrants."

Source

Breitbart
AP/Yahoo News
Australia Network News
Economic Times
Image: AFP/Getty Images/Breitbart

In a wide-ranging interview with a journalist from Portuguese radio station Renascença, the Pontiff said he wasn't pointing his finger "at anyone in particular".

"When there is an empty space, people try to fill it," Pope Francis said.

"If a country has no children, immigrants come in and take their place.

"I think of the birth-rate in Italy, Portugal and Spain. I believe it is close to 0 per cent.

"And this not wanting to have children is, partly - and this is my interpretation, which may not be correct -due to a culture of comfort, isn't it?

"In my own family I heard, a few years ago, my Italian cousins saying: ‘Children? No. We prefer to travel on our vacations, or buy a villa, or this and that' . . . .And the elderly are more and more alone."

The Pope said he believed Europe's greatest challenge is to go back to being a "mother Europe" as distinct from "grandmother Europe".

This echoes the speech Francis gave to Strasbourg last November when he described Europe as being "like a grandmother, no longer fertile and vibrant".

In the Renascença interview, the Pope said he had confidence in younger politicians to reclaim Europe's leadership role in the world and resist corruption.

He also expressed concern at the very high youth unemployment rates - approaching 50 per cent in some European nations.

Among the issues discussed at length in the interview was Francis's vision for a Church that risks getting "bruised" by going out to those in need.

He also threw in some humorous remarks.

Francis told the interviewer he goes to Confession about every 15 to 20 days and he joked about his confessor: "I never had to call an ambulance to take him back, in shock over my sins!"

Sources

• Renascença
• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The Pope said the two small parishes at the Vatican "will welcome in these days two families of refugees".

The plight of refugees from war-torn Syria has sparked calls for action worldwide, notably after a photo of a drowned boy was publicised.

Making the appeal during his Angelus prayer in St Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pontiff said the Gospel does not allow Christians to sit back from helping those in need.

"In front of the tragedy of the tens of thousands of refugees escaping death by war or hunger, on the path towards the hope of life, the Gospel calls us, asks us to be 'neighbours' of the smallest and most abandoned," Francis said.

Christians, the Pope said, must give the refugees "a concrete hope. Not only to say: 'Courage, patience!'"

Francis said sheltering refugee families by Catholic institutions would be "a concrete gesture in preparation of the Holy Year of Mercy".

"Every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every shrine of Europe house a family, starting from my diocese of Rome," he said.

A Vatican spokesman, Fr Ciro Benedettini, quoted the Pope's chief alms-giver as saying the Vatican is now deciding which families will be hosted.

Before the Pope's comments, Archbishop Henryk Hoser of Warsaw-Praga had backed plans by the government of Slovakia to admit only non-Muslim refugees and called for priority to be given to "endangered Christians".

A similar call was made by a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who said Britain should be prioritising Christian refugees who are victims of "ethnic cleansing" and have been crucified, beheaded, raped, and subjected to forced conversion by ISIS.

Lord Carey said Britain should "crush" ISIS by taking part in military action in Syria.

The European commission is expected to release a proposal this week calling for EU members to agree to a quota system in which each would agree to host a portion of an estimated 160,000 refugees.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Daily Mail
• Quartz
• National Catholic Reporter
• The Telegraph
• The Guardian
• Image: Sputniknews

Record numbers are arriving in Italy and Greece this year, and yet other European governments have agreed to share less than a fifth of them.

Hungary is building a wall to keep them out. For the same reason, France has sealed its border with Italy.

In Greece, for much of this year there were doubts over the legality of giving a refugee a lift.

But on a local level, there are thousands of people across the continent who are braving the vitriol of their peers, and filling the void left by the politicians. Many Europeans back their governments' stance but their xenophobia masks another phenomenon - that of a huge drive by ordinary citizens to welcome refugees, rather than reject them.

From the Hungarian volunteers providing round-the-clock support to Syrian and Afghani newcomers, to the Spanish priests assisting migrants with paperwork, here are seven movements from across Europe that are fighting for refugees' rights.

Germany

Germany has more people applying for asylum than any other EU country and is this year expecting to receive more than 400,000 applications, more than double the number in 2014.

Overcrowding of accommodation is seeing many asylum seekers being housed in tents, sport halls and container villages.

Mareike Geiling in Berlin believes there's a better way. Last year she decided to offer her room to a friend of a friend who had fled Mali, while she was away in Cairo for a few months.

"It was nothing special - I always tell people these refugees have the same issues and things to do as we do, they have to sleep, they have to eat, they have to shower. He is a very nice person and living together is very normal." Continue reading

Sources

• Maryline Baumard of Le Monde in Paris, writing in The Guardian
• Image: Debating Europe

Back then, the German chancellor said she was "deeply upset" — today she is "appalled." Back then, the president of the European Commission said he would never forget the dead, and that something had to change — today he claims: "The status quo is not an option."

Back then, Europe's interior ministers spoke of a horrific event — today it's an "utter horror.'" The gap between then and now is 19 months. And several thousands of dead in the Mediterranean.

Then was the night of Oct. 3, 2013. A fire broke out on an old cutter that had set out from the Libyan city of Misrata. Near the small Italian island of Lampedusa, more than 500 people went overboard, most of them from Somalia or Eritrea.

Not even one-third survived. The coffins in Lampedusa's airport hangar became a symbol for Europe's "shame," as Pope Francis put it.

At a meeting in Luxembourg held after the disaster, EU interior ministers spoke of a "wake-up call" and immediately established a working group. European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström argued that Lampedusa was an "image of the Union that we do not want."

In Berlin, the German government declared that "given a human catastrophe of this size," it was self-evident that current refugee policies should reexamined.

Shortly thereafter, German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to a summit of EU heads of government in Brussels, where "decisive measures" were promised to avoid a repeat of the catastrophe.

And then? Then the catastrophe repeated itself. A dozen times. Between then and now.

In the space of a few days in April, 400 people traveling from Africa to Europe drowned in the Mediterranean, then a boat with over 800 refugees capsized — and only 28 survived. Continue reading

Source and Image:

• Spiegel Online

In Albania, despite Italy's wartime invasion of that country, the fondest memory retained was that of Italian ice cream, which prevailed even through the most austere period of Enver Hoxha's Communist rule.

And then there is the darker side of the Italian stereotype: the Mafia boss; the Mussolini followers of fascism.

But over the past few months, surely, esteem for Italy's heroic and altruistic rescue of hundreds of thousands of refugees sailing, as best they can, across the Mediterranean, has surely grown all over Europe.

Over and over again, despite the pressures and political problems involved, Italy has effected humanitarian rescues of men, women and children who have fled North Africa for Italy's shores.

In a period of 12 months, Italians have rescued 100,000 people at sea in the Med. Granted, many of the migrants want to move to Germany, France, Sweden and Britain, but still, the Italians have behaved with great decency.

The latest tragedies, in which so many pitiful victims have lost their lives - with appalling suffering - when their unseaworthy vessels have capsized, only highlight further how much Italy has been involved in the rescue efforts.

The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, is surely right when he says the European Union simply has to help out. But easier said than done.

What exactly can the EU do to stop the trafficking, and help the desperate people who will take any risks to escape from the dreadful conditions of their homelands in North Africa, Egypt and elsewhere?

One lesson is clear: toppling dictators and advocating an "Arab spring" of democracy will not bring about peaceful, stable and tolerant societies overnight - or perhaps for centuries.

• Mary Kenny in Catholic Herald

Mary Kenny is a Catholic Herald columnist.

Since December 2013, the authority has spent hundreds of millions of euros deploying drones and satellites to surveil the borders.

The EU registers everything that happens near its borders. In contrast to the claims that are often made, they do not look away when refugees die. They are watching very closely.

And what is happening here is not negligent behaviour. They are deliberately killing refugees.People have been perishing as they sought to flee to Europe for years now. They drown in the Mediterranean, bleed to death on the border fences of the Spanish North African conclaves of Ceuta and Melilla or freeze to death in the mountains between Hungary and Ukraine.

But the European public still doesn't appear to be entirely aware of the dimensions of this humanitarian catastrophe. We have become accomplices to one of the biggest crimes to take place in European postwar history.

Barbarism in the Name of Europe

It's possible that 20 years from now, courts or historians will be addressing this dark chapter. When that happens, it won't just be politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris who come under pressure.

We the people will also have to answer uncomfortable questions about what we did to try to stop this barbarism that was committed in all our names.

The mass deaths of refugees at Europe's external borders are no accidents — they are the direct result of European Union policies. The German constitution and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights promise protection for people seeking flight from war or political persecution. But the EU member states have long been torpedoing this right.

Those wishing to seek asylum in Europe must first reach European territory. But Europe's policy of shielding itself off from refugees is making that next to impossible. The EU has erected meters-high fences at its periphery, soldiers have been ordered to the borders and war ships are dispatched in order to keep refugees from reaching Europe. Continue reading

• Maximilian Popp writes mainly on migration, racism and Turkey
• See also While Europe argues, thousands perish in the Mediterranean in MercatorNet