I live in the city with the fewest children in America. San Francisco has the lowest child to adult ratio of any American city, but one of the highest canine to human ratios. There are 110,000 children (and only 70,000 under 13) compared to 120,000 dogs in my city (the doggies “fill the streets and parks, the outdoor cafés and shops … keep appointments with their masseurs and acupuncturists … sit for portraits and for readings with their astrologers….” according to Michael Mason in a 2006 National Geographic article). Gee whiz….more dogs than children.
Running a city parish can be mighty discouraging. The Masses are mostly empty, and those that actually make it to Mass struggle with the burdens of advanced age, some in wheelchairs and many with canes. Anyone looking at the average city parish from the outside would say the Church is dying because very few are having children. A family came to the 11:00 Mass this morning with six children, and they radiated throughout the huge empty church like the sun. I met them after Mass: “Oh, we don’t live in San Francisco—could never afford it. We’re on vacation.”
Fifty years ago the Church said that if we accept a contraceptive mentality, we will have fewer children. If we have fewer children, we will become more selfish. If we become more selfish, we will become more desperately sad. I live in a city of unparalleled natural and historical beauty that is desperately sad.
There is a reason they call it “birth control.” It is an attempt to control human generation, to control our species at its very core, to control nature at its essential genesis. Mother Nature, and Nature’s God, however, will not be controlled, and we priests need to reassure our people that we can trust nature and nature’s God even with our sexual lives.
[To be continued next week….]
Running a city parish can be mighty discouraging. The Masses are mostly empty, and those that actually make it to Mass struggle with the burdens of advanced age, some in wheelchairs and many with canes. Anyone looking at the average city parish from the outside would say the Church is dying because very few are having children. A family came to the 11:00 Mass this morning with six children, and they radiated throughout the huge empty church like the sun. I met them after Mass: “Oh, we don’t live in San Francisco—could never afford it. We’re on vacation.”
Fifty years ago the Church said that if we accept a contraceptive mentality, we will have fewer children. If we have fewer children, we will become more selfish. If we become more selfish, we will become more desperately sad. I live in a city of unparalleled natural and historical beauty that is desperately sad.
There is a reason they call it “birth control.” It is an attempt to control human generation, to control our species at its very core, to control nature at its essential genesis. Mother Nature, and Nature’s God, however, will not be controlled, and we priests need to reassure our people that we can trust nature and nature’s God even with our sexual lives.
[To be continued next week….]
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