Vatican City (AsiaNews) –  "Declining birthrates," in various nations "are depriving [them] of freshness, energy, and a future which children embody," Pope Benedict XVI's said this morning in his weekly audience held at St Peter's Square.

The Pope referred to the lack of "children [born]of youth", without which elderly parents cannot face the future with security and will not have "support in old age."

The Pope made these references as an aside to comments on Psalm 126 which speaks of the need of God's blessing so that man's constructions can bear fruit: the city, the family, children, work.  "Without the Lord," the  Pope said, "man labours in vain to erect a stable house, to build a secure city, to make his work fruitful (cfr Psalm 126:1-2).  Instead, with the Lord, there exist prosperity and fertility, a family rich with children and serene, a well-equipped and defended city, free of nightmares and insecurity."

The image of a family full of children is only one of the Psalm's details.  But the Pope likely wished to catechize Europe and many countries that look down on having children: in fact, all the translations summarizing the Pope's catechesis referred to the question of "declining birthrates."

"Procreation," Benedict XVI said, "is a gift that brings life and well-being for society.  We are aware of this in our day and age with nations being deprived of freshness, energy and the future embodied by children, due to declining birthrates."

Among those countries facing problems of declining birthrates are Italy (birthrate per 1000 inhabitants: 8.89), France (12.15), Spain (10.1) and other European countries.  Even Russia, demographers say, risks disappearing (9.8).  As for Asia, Singapore (9.94) and Japan (9.47) are facing the crisis of an aging population.  China (13.14) and India (22.32), despite having a huge population, are characterized by demographic disorder due to birth control policies and the almost systematic elimination of female fetuses, creating psychological imbalances and making it difficult for tens of millions of males to get married.