Page 18 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 10

COMMUNITY

Gates and his wife Melinda. “The Church stands opposed to the
The Gates are known for their nal John Njue, then-chairman of imposition of limits on family size,
the Kenya Episcopal conference,
fanatical commitment to using pointed out the obvious. “It is not and to the promotion of methods
their vast wealth and influence to of limiting births which separate the
blanket developing countries with clear why such a large amount of unitive and procreative dimensions
contraceptives. In one truly bizarre money is being used for contracep- of marital intercourse,” he wrote,
recent video, Bill Gates lauded tives while many women are dying “which are contrary to the moral
daily due to lack of proper medical
Mechai Viravaidya, who he calls the care, food and housing,” he wrote. law inscribed on the human heart,
“condom king” of Thailand. Gates or which constitute an assault on the
recounts how Viravaidya once gave “If such money or a portion of it sacredness of life.”
his dad a hat made from hundreds was used to develop the underdevel-
of condoms. (“He wore the cap at oped parts of Kenya, the so-called Neither should parents, the pope
threatening population of 64 million
our foundation’s annual meeting, people in the year 2040 would be emphasized, be pressured or co-
earning big laughs from the staff,” erced into having fewer children.
said Gates.) Viravaidya is known for too low.” Large families should be supported,
and openly brags about aggressively he urged. The Church’s approach
pushing condoms on school-chil- So much so-called international to development emphasizes: 1)
“aid” now takes it as self-evident
dren by holding condom relay that fertility and population are the sanctity of life, since no devel-
races and balloon-blowing contests opment based upon the murder
– something that Gates himself intrinsically a threat to development. of innocent human beings is true
praises. This anti-natal attitude is strongly development, and 2) the sanctity of
repudiated by the Catholic Church, the family, since an intact family is
which recognizes human beings not
Because nothing says authentic as liabilities, but assets. This attitude the most important foundation for a
“development” like having innocent, healthy, stable society.
pre-pubescent school-children play was expressed pithily by Pope St.
with condoms. But this is the squa- John Paul II in his encyclical Centes- “It is necessary to go back to seeing
lor and hubris that fuels the model simus Annus, where he observed the family as the sanctuary of life,”
that, besides the earth’s material
of development endorsed by people resources, “man’s principal resource wrote Pope St. John Paul II in
like the Gates or Marie Stopes: they Centessimus Annus. “The family
know what is best for Africans. is man himself” (¶32). is indeed sacred: it is the place in
And they are willing even to openly which life – the gift of God – can
flout the laws of the countries they “[C]hildren must not be treated as a be properly welcomed and protected
burden or inconvenience but should
operate in or hyper-sexualize their be cherished as bearers of hope and against the many attacks to which
children in pursuit of their perni- it is exposed and can develop in
cious ideological colonization. signs of promise for the future,” accordance with what constitutes
he wrote in that same encyclical. authentic human growth. In the face
“The care which is essential for their
The Church’s Pro-Family Model growth and nurture comes primarily of the so-called Culture of Death,
of Development from their parents, but society must the family is the heart of the Culture
What is striking about Marie Stopes of Life” (¶39).
and the Gates Foundation is their help by sustaining the family in its
obsessive focus not on providing de- needs and in its efforts to maintain In a direct rebuke to the likes of the
veloping nations with the necessities the caring environment in which Gates Foundation and Marie Stopes,
children can develop” (¶49).
of life or education needed for true the sainted pope lamented: “Human
economic development, but rather ingenuity seems to be directed more
on reducing their populations. In a 1994 letter to the secretary gen- towards limiting, suppressing or
Kenyans need food, water, roads… eral of the International Conference destroying the sources of life – in-
not abortion. If you want to help on Population and Development, cluding recourse to abortion, which
Pope St. John Paul II noted that the
women, give them maternal care! unfortunately is so widespread in the
Church is not necessarily against world – than towards defending and
equipping couples with the informa-
In 2012, after the Gates Foundation opening up the possibility of life.”
announced that Kenya was among tion they need to space births, but
the countries targeted for their $4.6 that any methods of family regu-
lation must respect the moral law.
billion contraception push, Cardi-

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