Alot has been written about demographics and the West, imparticular on the decline of western birthrates. Many reasons have been given as to why this is occurring but I think that most of them miss the mark. For instance, Mark Steyn in an article in Opinion Journal that quite accurately accesses the gravity of the situation, but even he misses the mark. The decline of birth rates can be mapped along with the fall of devotion to Christian, and in our case Catholic devotion. Church attendance rates have dropped in every major western country. This has lead to what I call the Two Headed Beast.

What is this beast? Quite simply it is the twin sins of abortion and contraception. At the start of the last century, every major christian faith held that abortion and contraception was evil. Now only the Catholic faith still adheres and holds to that. Look at what this beast has done. Replacement birthrate per woman is considered 2.1 children. just look at this cross section of western birthrates.

United States 2.07
Ireland 1.87
Canada 1.5
Germany 1.3
Austria 1.3
Russia 1.2
Italy 1.2
Spain 1.1

As you can see this is halfing of population in most of Europe and the U.S. is barely keepin even. The U.S. is a unique picure though. The so called blue states, (by definition those states that tend to be politically liberal, and thus the least devout) have the lowest birth rates, while the red states have the highest.

So what is the solution? Generally, I believe a reevangelization of Europe and the U.S. is needed badly. I think in Europe, this will genereally be more difficult, though not impossible. In fact Pope Bennedict XVI chose his name to call emphasis to the first time that this happened in Europe. Rome was flooded with non christian germanic tribes and the pagenism that associated with it. Saint Benedict set out to evangelize Europe and eventually this was done.

So, is there hope? All hope rests in Christ.