|CONTENTS| |SEARCH| |MAPS|

POPE URGES IRRESPONSIBILITY

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE POPE ON THE OCCASION OF WORLD POPULATION AWARENESS WEEK, OCTOBER 22-29

by Audrey Bernstein
New York City Sierra Club--Population Committee

To Pope John XXIII:
Once upon a time the Lord said, "Go forth and multiply." We did that -- in fact, we had already done that more than sufficiently by the late 50s--when there were only half as many people as the 5.7 billion of us now living on earth.

You speak for the poor. Yet, you know the world's resources are limited, and that the more people the planet has to support, the greater will be the number of poor and the starker will be their pover ty. You have great concern for today's unfortunate--but you seem to have no thought for future generations.

Should population continue to increase, the scarcity of food, water and other essential resources will create a very unpleasant world for my children, to say nothing of my grandchildren. You talk of strengthening the family. Families do not become stronger by having more children than they can care for. Families that cannot cope inevitably break up, produce neglected or abused children.

Instead of urging us to have more children than we can care for and more children that the world's limited resources can support, why not encourage us to behave responsibly, to make education, contraception and family planning readily available to all, and to leave a livable planet to our heirs.

Sincerely,
Audrey Bernstein
New York City Sierra Club--Population Committee

THE END

|CONTENTS| |SEARCH| |MAPS|