In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II speaks of today's "culture of death." He lays out the broad outlines of this culture: forgetfulness of God, a distorted sense of freedom, and a low esteem for human life. All of this leaeds to secularism and practical atheism. What the Pope describes in general terms, Michael Schooyans, a Catholic expert in population studies at Louvain University, fills in with concrete details in his latest book, The Demographic Crash. The bombshell in this study is the population decline in the developed nations of the West. It is only quite recently that the popular press in our country has begun noticing this phenomenon. Fr. John H. Miller, C.S.C., editor of SOCIAL JUSTICE REVIEW, has made a major contribution to Catholic understanding of these important issues by translating this and other works of Schooyans.

Schooyans' little book is power-packed, like dynamite. He wastes no time in mincing words. The promoters of the "culture of death" do not hesitate to resort to deception, disinformation, discrimination and coercion. "The UN's programs in the area of human life reflect the aggressive materialism and the spiritual and religious desert of the present world, especially the world of the rich." The Demographic Crash is an eye-opener, a heart-thumper, and a foot-starter. It informs us, arouses us, and outlines our intelligent response. It is an exemplary work of social justice. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

The Demographic Crash is an erudite, scholarly, meticulously documented book, a study which must convince every unbiased reader, disclosing as it does the falsehoods of the death peddlers and mobilizing readers to defend life with the fervor it deserves and needs. What the depopulators have achieved by decoupling sex from reproduction is gigantic in its consequences; it is fatal, because it is not only unnatural, but it is directly anti-natural. God forgives always, man sometimes, nature never. Nature's punishment is death -- not only in individual death, but death of States, nations and cultures.