The Pope on the Nazi mentality in family planning.

Everyone is concerned about the family these days.

I like what the Holy Father said about the trend to selective abortion:

“I've heard that it's fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first few months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let's send it away,” the pope said June 16, referring to the trend of aborting sick or disabled children. 

This, he said, is “the murder of children…to get a peaceful life an innocent [person] is sent away…We do the same as the Nazis to maintain the purity of the race, but with white gloves.” 

“It's an atrocity but we do the same thing,” he said, according to Italian media. - CWR

We do the same thing.

No one wants an old guy like me to comment on family life.  

As a single, old man, no one is interested in my take on modern family problems, which is so influenced by popular culture and media, and so intent upon prosperity and luxury.  Old people are a drain on the economy and a waste of space for many today.

A new, state-of-the-art day care opened across the street from me, in the old church which has been completely rehabbed.  Big SUV's pull up, parents with infants and toddlers, who are dropped off to be cared for by strangers.  It's a Spanish immersion facility and all the care attendants are Latina.  (What a contrast with how immigrant children facilities are at our southern border - but that's another story - although the irony is not lost on me.)

Without detailing my reaction to the center, and after experiencing harsh criticism by parents in the neighborhood for objecting to the playground design of the center, which is directly across the street from my house, I have come to realize I'm on the wrong side of everything when it comes to American parenting.

That said,  I can only imagine what kids who are dumped in daycare from infancy, no matter how up-scale the facility and well trained the workers, will turn out. The daily routine of play and care provided by strangers, exposed to other kids and habits at such an early age, and separated from parents, it must have some effect.  Therefore, the experience of being semi-institutionalized from infancy just may account for gender identity problems and other  disturbances and disorders, which seem on the increase generation after generation.

I remember when I was in school we were told how bad the Soviets were for taking children from their parents to be raised/educated by the state.  Daycare seems to me a modern equivalent on some level - kind/sorta.  On a neighborhood site I simply expressed my incredulity that only weeks old infants are left at daycare, subsequently I was attacked by several parents - women and men - calling me ignorant and that I should mind my own business. I looked up the profiles of those people, they are fashionable young couples who have nice houses, nicer cars, great jobs, most likely gym memberships, along with other expenses - therefore they need to work to make daycare costs of $1400- per month, per child.

Nazi poster:  "60000 RM. This is what this person 

suffering from hereditary defects costs

 the Community of Germans during his lifetime. 

Fellow Citizen, that is your money, too."

Back to the point of this post, but it is no wonder modern families wouldn't want a sick or disabled child to mess up their life.  The Pope is right on the Nazi mentality thing.  BTW - if you want another clarification on Amoris, read this:

The pope, the paper reported, said it is “painful” to think that society would accept the killing of children simply because they are sick or disabled, but this is the current mentality. 

On the family, he noted that in modern society “one speaks of different types of family,” defining the term in different ways. “Yes, it's true that family is an analogous word, yes one can also say 'the family of stars,' 'the family of trees,' 'the family of animals,'” he said, but stressed that “the family in the image of God is only one, that of man and woman…marriage is a wonderful sacrament.” 

Turning to his 2016 post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis said that some have reduced the document to “you can, you can't,” referring to the debate surrounding access to the sacraments for the divorced and remarried in the document's eighth chapter.

“They have understood nothing,” he said, explaining that his exhortation “does not hide problems,” but goes beyond mere case studies. To understand the text, he said, one must read chapter four on the spirituality of everyday life, which he said is the “is the core” of the document. - CWR

Something is wrong with modern families, no doubt, but they don't want to be told anything they don't want to hear.  My mother had to work when I was little because my dad was always in trouble or between jobs.  I remember being dropped off at daycare and it was a bit traumatic at first, but it was a family situation - home daycare provided by a neighbor.  I adjusted rather well I suppose.  I just can't imagine leaving infants and babies to be cared for by strangers.