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Inter-religious peace quest
Reclaiming the “spirit of Assisi”
The 15th inter-religious meeting organized by the Sant’Egidio community opened in Barcelona on September 2 with a denunciation of the renewed fighting in the Holy Land and a call for an end to all religious warfare.
The meeting was designed to promote “the spirit of Assisi”—a reference to the 1986 meeting that brought together leaders of the world’s great religious traditions at the famed basilica of St. Francis. In a message to the 3,000 participants, Pope John Paul II insisted that “peace between peoples is no longer a far-off utopia.” The Pope observed that the first such inter-religious meeting took place at a time when the world was divided into two power blocs, “and influenced by the fear of nuclear war.” Since that time, the world has stepped closer to mutual understanding, he contended.
In a closing message, Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Sant’Egidio community, suggested that the world’s three great monotheistic religions should join in challenging international political leaders—acknowledging that such an effort would require “new boldness, so that we are not unrealistic or irresponsible, but speak with a real sense of hope.”
Demographic collapse
Politicians back fertility
Spain finds itself in dire circumstances as its birth rate of 1.2 per woman—the world’s lowest—threatens to cause the collapse of the country’s social welfare system. Spanish politicians are taking to the airwaves to pitch patriotism to women, urging them to have more children.
Demographer Juan Antonio Fernandez of Spain’s Superior Council for Scientific Research predicts that with the current state of affairs, the country’s population of 40 million will begin shrinking in as few as four years. “The problem is not the volume of the population. We could get by with as little as 30 million people,” Fernandez says. “It’s the age structure.” Generally a country requires four people in the work force for every retiree drawing pension benefits. Using that standard, Fernandez calculates that by the year 2050, Spain would need four times as many wage-earners as the latest generation of children would provide.
However, Fernandez doubts women can be convinced to have more children. So he looks to massive immigration as the only hope. He says Spain needs to accept immigrants at a rate “about 10 times more each year than we are currently receiving.” He concluded, “It would mean a real change in Spain, and I’m not sure we are ready to face it.”
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