THE POPULATION PROBLEM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 8

THE POPULATION PROBLEM

NEGLECT OF THE NATURAL I. AW ’Although v. c New Zeaiandeis may be Cnristians mure or less in our private lives, we have never allowed ■Christianity to exercise much influence in our social life," sai’i Rev. Father L. Brice, S.M., at me meeting of the Catholic Social Stuciy ’ Club on i uCiday evening. “For in- • stance, most ul us c-onsiuer that a Government exists in order to do the will of the peup*c. he never thim. of it as c.xisJng in older to do the will of Go t. ine will of God, tr.e plan or order of things which Goa nas laid down in order that men, might iuliil the destiny lor v.nich »uOu intends them, should, it we were really Christians, be oui first and ’ foremost consideration. This divine! plan or oruer ot things is called tne [ natural law, since in accordance with I it human natuie has been fasnioned! such as it is. and it is the foundation . of Christian morality, oi the Chris-. Lon code of conduct. The purpose oi a government according to the ’ Christian conception of thi*, s is not [ to fulfill the wul of me people, but to iuliil the will ot God mat is to. say, to luliil the natural law. since I ihe natural Jaw consists merely of I .ague general piinciples, it is the: function of the civil authority to | make more deiinitc legislation to ’ : now cieariy how the general obliga- | lions of Uno natural Jav. appr. in par- j ueular circumstances. Natural Law Nov. /.nee this natural Jaw comesiiora the very author oi human na-i lure, Rom the one v.no Knows! human nature bus., it necessarily' must be that code oi. conduct vvhicn i is best htlcd not only to aid man in attaining his eternal destiny, but also to provide lor the welfare and happiness ot human society in this lhe. v.nerc the laws, customs and manners oi any people are oased on the natural law, there will inevitably be peace and narmony. .Since the natuial law is the basis oi the Christian law, vvnerever Cnristianity has been allowed to exercise a social influence it has automatically exercised a oeneiicial influence on human welfare. Such was the case, for instance. during the Middle Ages. On the otner hand, wnenever a people or it nation ignore the natural law and violate it in a wholesale iashion, then social- cnaos and oi-order v.iU inevitably fall upon them. We can see this by the analogy between the natural Jaw and the laws of nature, though they arc not quite the same tiling. The Laws c( Nature I*or example, the wholesale violalion of the laws of nature in the destruction ot the forest and the herbage, which Uh? Creator set as a sponge to absorb the rainfall has resulted in disastrous Hoods, which have brought misery to hundreds of thousands of people. So too the wholesale violation of the natural law by the people of New Zealand in th? form of birth control and abortion must inevitably bring upon our nation the disaster of a dwindling