Social Justice, Population Control and Fighting the Myth Which Progressives Perpetuate

This is weird.  As I was about to post a video by ALL it said that "it was pulled by the user".  I wonder for what reason the video was pulled?  It was about how Catholic social justice has been corrupted by certain people who are progressives.  And how these progressives are advocating for population control.  This is true so this leaves me puzzled, wondering why this video was taken down.

Here is a summary from LifeSiteNews:

In a video released today, American Life League, the nation’s largest Catholic pro-life group, has called for a complete investigation of Catholic social justice organizations for embracing population control advocate Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

Entitled “Aborting Poverty”, the investigative video outlines Dr. Jeffrey Sachs’ history of population control as the primary means for ending poverty.  According to the video, Dr. Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University, has said one of the best ways to fight poverty rates is to reduce population growth and fertility rates with voluntary birth control, sterilizations, and abortion.

Dr. Sachs is head of the Earth Institute and the Millennium Project.  ALL’s concern is that in recent years, Sachs has also been lauded and commended by the U.S. Roundtable Association for Diocesan Social Action (http://www.catholicroundtable.org/), which includes partnerships with Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Relief Services, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In 2002, the USCCB invited Sachs to speak at “Humanizing the Global Economy.” He was invited in 2006 to keynote the USCCB-sponsored “Point 7 Now” conference.  In 2005, the president of Catholic Relief Services wrote a book review of Sachs’ “The End of Poverty,” calling it a “must read.”  In that book, Sachs argues population control through “reproductive services” and artificial contraception is central to reducing poverty.

“Sachs’ unapologetic promotion of abortion and population control has no place in Catholic social justice,” said Michael Hichborn, host of the American Life League Report.

“These theories define children as causing poverty rather than as victims of it. Killing the preborn to reduce poverty does not promote prosperity; it perverts the human person into livestock to be properly managed.”

ALL has sent “Aborting Poverty” to the bishop of every diocese in the country.

“The social justice movement in the Catholic Church is being co-opted and corrupted into secular humanism.  This is just the tip of the iceberg,” concluded Hichborn. “The Church must investigate, remove misdirected individuals from positions of authority, and make certain that supposed ‘Catholic’ organizations carry out the true principles of Catholicism.”

American Life League will issue an “explosive” 100 page investigative report on Church social justice funds going to anti-Catholic organizations in the immediate future.

“Until these professional Catholics stop collaborating with and promoting ideologues who undermine the Church’s work for the gospel of life, we will continue to flounder, more babies will die, and more souls will be lost,” concludes Hichborn. “It’s time that the Catholic Church thoroughly investigated the activities of these Catholic social justice organizations.”

This has me wondering did ALL ruffle a few feathers? Why are the bishops in the USCCB associating themselves with this guy Sachs who clearly is causing scandal to the Church by distorting the teachings on social justice? 

Then here we have the UN calling for population control measures to reduce poverty even though there has been a dramatic decline in birth rates in quite a few countries.  What the UN fails to realize is that the rapid decline in the birth rate since after the 60's is proving harder and harder for the working population to be able to support the ever growing number of retirees.  

"Russia is not the only country with a fertility rate that is below replacement. Most of Europe is suffering from this demographic crisis. Italy, Spain, Germany, and Portugal and others had fertility rates close to 1.4 children per woman from 2005 to 2010.[6] Furthermore, worldwide fertility rates have dropped by nearly 50% since 1950.[7]" 

The population is continuing to rise because there were high birthrates in the 1950’s and 1960’s and people are living longer than ever before because of advances in medical technology and food production. However, the future of these countries will be determined by coming generations.

Countries with birthrates that are significantly below replacement rate face the challenge of decreased workforce, decreased consumption, and decreased ability to defend their borders. The impact of years of “population control” propaganda and abortion, on the world’s fertility has been devastating. Instead of continuing down that path, the United Nations should take a leaf out of Russia’s book and try to think of ways to strengthen the family and increase fertility worldwide.

Archbishop Chullikatt responds to the UN's call for population control: 

Unfortunately many discussions in the present day continue to be led by a false notion that, in the context of population growth, the very act of giving life is something to be feared rather than affirmed. Such thinking is based on a radical individualism which sees human reproduction as a commodity that must be regulated and improved in order to encourage greater market efficiency and development. How can such a view be consistent with the objectives of the United Nations? Put most candidly, it cannot.

This flawed understanding leads to the distorted view that population growth, especially among the poor, must be decreased in order to address poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. It is also based upon the consistently disproven theory that population increase will devastate the environment, lead to global competition and confrontation for resources and undermine the ability of women to interact fully with society. These apprehensions contribute to the advancement of forms of reproductive technology which denigrate the nature of human sexuality. The combination of these misconceptions have led some national governments to adopt laws and policies which discourage parents from exercising their fundamental and non-derogable right to have children free of coercion and which even make it illegal for mothers to give birth in some cases or for a child to have one’s own brothers and sisters.

CONTINUED