Austria: Tragic situation for the family, according to Bishop Klaus Küng

During a speech given in the context of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the foundation of the Austrian Institute for marriage and the family, Mgr. Klaus Küng, bishop of Feldkirch, president of the Commission for the Family of the Austrian Bishops Conference, declared that the fall in the birth rate and the increase in the divorce rate had reached proportions which would have been unimaginable thirty years ago. He denounced the social trends of today, cohabitation and unions between homosexuals. A society can only be healthy if it promotes the attainable ideal of a family with children, based on marriage.
Touching on the declining birth rate and the increasing number of divorces, the bishop of Feldkirch maintained that this trend could be reversed. Faith plays a fundamental role in this matter. Mgr. Küng said that the State also had a role to play: The present crisis of the retirement and health systems could only be solved in the long term with more children.
The Austrian bishop explained, however, that financial aid for parents was not the only determining factor in bringing about an increase in the birth rate: a change in mentality with regard to life, feelings and love, would be necessary.
In conclusion, Mgr. Küng deplored the absurd and harmful eroticization of society, and accentuated the importance of an unmutilated sex education, adapted to a childs age, which would come primarily back to parents.