Go forth and multiply but then subtract, priest warns couples

GO forth and multiply can no longer be the message of the Church, an Irish priest has warned.

Instead couples should limit themselves to no more than two or three children for the sake of the planet.

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Fr Sean McDonagh, a Columban missionary and expert on the environment, says that unless we reduce population growth and simplify our lives, more than 11,000 species face extinction over the next 50-100 years. Fr McDonagh issues the warning in his latest book, ‘The Death of Life’.

He says that the size of the world’s population is such that “the time is now ripe for the Catholic Church to revisit its teaching on birth control.

“The basis of that teaching is that each act of sexual intercourse must be open to life. But if this leads, as it inevitably must, to larger families, then there will be an increased stress on global ecosystems within four or five decades.

“Such a breakdown, especially in the area of food production, will lead to a dramatic fall in human population levels which may well be permanent because the damage to the earth’s fertility could be irreversible.”

He adds: “The irony then would be that a strict adherence to ‘Humanae Vitae’, which sets out to promote respect for life, could in the longer term undermine the conditions which are necessary for human life in the future.”

Fr McDonagh claims that the battle to save the planet is as important as the fight against slavery or to secure workers’ rights in past generations.

He says that political and economic decision-makers “do not appreciate the extent to which the insatiable demands of our global economy are tearing apart the web of life, with disastrous consequences for future generations”.

Fr McDonagh also accuses the Church of staying silent about the threat to the environment throughout most of the 20th century.