Vatican Secretary of State Warns of Europe’s Low Birth Rates, "demographic winter"

This is not the first time Parolin has addressed the possibility of a “demographic winter” — a dramatic and highly consequential shrinking of population caused by low birth rates. He did so in 2021 in a speech in France where he similarly urged the continent to rediscover its Christian roots.

Pope Francis has himself in the past described the low number of births as “a figure that reveals a great concern for tomorrow.” He has criticized what he describes as the “social climate in which starting a family has turned into a titanic effort, instead of being a shared value that everyone recognizes and supports.”

Francis in 2022 also described cratering fertility rates as a “social emergency,” arguing that while the crisis was “not immediately perceptible, like other problems that occupy the news,” it is nevertheless “very urgent” insofar as low birth rates are “impoverishing everyone’s future.”

‘Europe greatly needs to rediscover its roots’

Parolin in his remarks this week asserted that the people of Europe have largely forgotten “the immense calamities of the past,” especially the 30 years leading up to the end of World War II, and run the risk of “falling back into the tragic errors of those times.”

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“While in 1945, European peoples were propelled toward a future that could only be imagined as better than the past, today they seem to view the future as an entirely unknown time or even worse than the recent past. This way of thinking affects the very capacity to embrace life and spreads a climate of resignation where hope does not dwell,” Parolin said, referring to spirits of “populism, polarization, and fear” that are on the rise in Europe. 

“The Church, ‘experienced in humanity,’ and therefore the Holy Father employ the language of responsibility, moderation, and warning of the risks that can befall if dangerous paths are taken, condemning the most perilous errors. For this reason, such language does not lend itself to easy simplification and does not always present immediate solutions,” the cardinal continued. 

“However, the Holy Father’s words originate from the Gospel and are always words of wisdom. They are realistic, as the Gospel is realistic, which does not promise paradise without the cross.”

Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, has shaped the history of Europe in its “cathedrals, universities, art, the development of its institutions, and a thousand other aspects,” Parolin said. The decision to exclude any mention of God in the current European Constitution leads, he said, to “the exacerbation of a certain confusion that does not help in building the European project.”

“Indeed, to find the strength for a new leap that allows reaching new and important goals, overcoming ever-resurgent selfishness, Europe greatly needs to rediscover its roots. If it intends to be a voice that is heard and authoritative in today’s world and if it wants to overcome exhausting impasses, it needs to rediscover the greatness of the values that inspired it, values well known to the founders of modern Europe,” Parolin said. 

Pope Francis during his ongoing trip will greet royal leaders, prime ministers, professors and students, and Catholics in the two small historically Christian countries of Luxembourg and Belgium, both of which are experiencing steep declines in religious adherence amid the spread of secularization.

After events in Luxembourg today, the pope’s four-day trip will continue in Belgium, where he will visit three cities to mark the 600th anniversary of the Catholic universities of Leuven and Louvain-la-Neuve before returning to Rome on Sept. 29.

Parolin, who described the Holy Father as a “pilgrim of hope,” said he hopes the pope’s visit “provides an opportunity for a profound reflection on Europe and on the way the Church exists in Europe today.”

“I hope it will be a moment in which believers and nonbelievers have the opportunity to listen to the words of the successor of St. Peter and to compare their way of being and acting in the world with the invitation that comes from the Gospel,” he concluded. 

Jonah McKeown is a staff writer and assistant podcast producer for Catholic News Agency. He holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and in the past has worked as a writer, as a producer for public radio, and as a videographer.