European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 09, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday september 9, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13 regains its voice on Ion matters two facts May help you keep things in perspective in the swirling controversy about the . Conference on Popula Tion and development now taking place in Cairo Egypt. When the Cann Nading on the abortion question threatens to deafen you this May help. First a great Deal already has been done to tamp Down the world s birthrate. Between 1950 and 1990, the average number of Chil Dren per couple in the developing nations dropped from 6.2 to 3.6 a Davids Broder major reason is that contraception is now prac tired by roughly half the couples in the world up from 9he in eight 40 years ago. Lest you become complacent recall the second fact As reflected in the words of vice president Al Gore it. Took roughly 10,000 generations for the world to reach a population of 2 billion. And yet in my 46 years we have gone from a Little Over 2 billion to almost 6 around the world today there Are 1 Bil lion teen agers and if that does t make you worry nothing will. The problem with the population debate is that the numbers Are too big. We Are accustomed to focusing on prob lems of manageable size what do we do with the thousands of cuban refugees How Many hundreds of troops would fight for Gen. Raoul Cedras if the United states lands forces in Haiti will the re publicans pick up More than 20 House seats this november those questions Are interesting but the issues they re wrestling with in Cairo Are a lot More consequential. Whether the population of the Globe Levels off to Ward the Middle of the next Century at 8.3 billion or 10 billion or 12 billion that s the Range of estimates could Well determine whether your children and grandchildren live Good lives or struggle for survival. To the credit of the Clinton administration it has recognized the scope and the seriousness of the population development questions from the Day it took of fice. The president himself Gore and former sen. Tim Wirth of Colorado now undersecretary of state All have Given real leadership on this Issue. Those who think elections Are mean ingless should look at the change that has taken place on . Population policy. Ten years ago when the United nations last convened a world Assembly on population development in Mexico City the Reagan administration virtually boycotted the Effort. Its stance pleased Abor Tion foes in the United states frustrated at the inability of republicans to change the supreme court but it took the United states out of its leadership role on this Issue in the world. Now we Are Back. Through most of the postwar period the United states has invested More funds Talent and expertise in helping expand maternal health child care and family planning facilities and programs around the world than any other nation. President Clinton has in creased that commitment both in Dol Lars and in leadership. He Gore and Wirth have acted with due deference to the religious principles moral scruples and nationalist Pride that Are inevitably challenged by this topic. They have not escaped controversy. The Vatican and some centers of islam have denounced the . Consensus document that is the basis of discussion in Cairo. The administration insists convincingly i think that it is notes housing an International right to unrestricted abortion but rather would leave that emotionally and morally charged question to National Law and custom. The tone of All the top administration leaders speeches has been respectful of those whose religion condemns abortion and in the Case of the Pope any form of artificial contraception at All. But they have not isolated themselves from the world wide dialogue on How to allow individual families and whole societies to balance the desire for children with the need for economic Security education and the limits the environment places on human consumption. There have been times when Gore in particular has seemed to me to overstate the Case for population control. When he spoke at the National press club last month he suggested that the troubles in Rwanda and Somalia and the threat Many see in increased immigration All were aspects of the population prob lem.". No doubt it is relevant but Robert Cassen s essay of population policy for the overseas development Council is scorched Earth policy probably on sounder ground in Sug Gesting that while population growth is a Long term Factor in Many global prob lems it has More immediate implications at the National and household level the Case for activist population poli cies Cassen argues is fundamentally a moral and humanitarian one. Individuals and couples should Only have the Chil Dren they want and can support children have a right to be wanted and to enter a family and Community that values that is a sound principle and it is. Good to see the United states giving it voice once again in the world. C Washington Post. Letter challenges Pope on population control the business in Cairo Egypt has become a first class philosophical Brawl featuring the Catholic Church by no mems United. Although the Pope is the supreme authority in the Church and As a matter of Dogma cannot err on doctrinal matters he is substantially protected by the ques Tion what is a dogmatic matter nobody can go fur ther than to say that which the Pope declares sex Cathedra i.e., citing his authority to speak definitively on the question to be a doctrinal Point is a doctrinal Point. But the Pope has since done that Only twice first in affirming his infallibility 1870second in affirming the Assumption of Mary the Mother of Christ 1950 so what is the Community at Large to make of the strenuous advertising Campaign sponsored by catholics speak out it is an open letter to Pope John Paul ii on the question of contraception and is endorsed by a dozen organizations e.g., the conference for Catho Lic lesbians unfamiliar except to theological zoo watchers which however in t to say that the open let Ter is without eyes of those who favor conscious efforts to curb population growth but acknowledge that some Means of accomplishing this goal Are inadmissible focus on contraception and abortion. Concerning abortion the catholics speak out dissenters say nothing reserving their fire for contraception of which they approve. But the language of the open letter reminds the Reader that Many catholics Are equipped to serve As Philadelphia lawyers. Respect for human dignity de mands that we recognize the Beauty and goodness of sexual intimacy in committed relation ships whether or not Are open to that Asser Tion is primarily interesting for what it does not say. It is a Jude Christian teaching that sexual intimacy is Beautiful and Good Between married Cou Ples. The respect invoked in the open letter demands approval indeed a Celebration or sexual Congress Between homosexuals or for that matter adulterers just so Long As the relationship is the legitimacy of teaching requires that it be embraced by the faithful declares the open letter. That is different from the Catholic Contention that the con sensual belief of the faithful has a generating function that tends to give special life to an article of Faith. Catholic thought acknowledges the weakness of the individual and seeks to instruct the flock in the discipline of self control. It is by no Means a question permanently closed whether contraception violates the de William f. Buckley Postum Fidei the distillate of christianity. Somatt modifications would have the effect of rescinding the Faith. But massive refusal by catholics to abide by marriage Laws to reject abortion As a Means of birth control or for that matter to keep holy the Sab Bath tells us More about the infidelity of the flock than about the magi sternum s incompetence. Surveys in Many countries consistently show that most catholics believe that decisions of conscience about contraception rightfully belong with those who must Bear and rear children the letter says. But that sweeping philosophical assertion asks us to yield sovereignty in the definition of ethical practice to those directly affected an invitation to the particular nation of morals that defies not Only Christian but also extra Christian definitions of Universal Laws the open letter concludes by informing the Pope that he is just Plain wrong on contraception which i believe is the Case. But at stake in Cairo is More merely than yes or no on condoms. The Popula Tion and ecological Folk meet intending to deduce moral Laws from natural problems and this in t what catholicism is All about. Curbing population excesses has to do with curbing human appetites not with Gratifying human desires and calling them Good and Beautiful. C Universal press Syndicate
