The Church and Demographics

There is an opinion piece by the Action Institue for the Study of Religion and Liberty that argues that the root of Europes declining birthrate is due to the waning influence of the Catholic church and the nannt state.

Now, the more urgent task is to show that Western European socialism has also failed. Although some aspects of the Western European model originally claimed Christian inspiration and objective, it is now clear that the modern Western European welfare-state
is collapsing. And while many modern countries share some of the problems loosely
categorized under the “European social model,” it is Europe that most desperately needs a genuinely Catholic alternative.

The simplest way to see the failure of the extended welfare state is to look at the
demography of Western Europe. The demographic implosion of Europe has both economic and spiritual causes. And the demographic problem illustrates the most basic flaw of the system: It is not sustainable. The modern welfare state or social assistance state can not replenish itself because it has marginalized the family.

The onslaught of the secular nanny state has taken the idea of marriage as a stabilizing force in society and turned it on its ear. With the onslaught of the "Dutch Experiment" the number of children born out of wedlock has doubled from 18% to 31%, while the propensity to marry had been dropping since 1997.