Number of Children, Religion and Year of Marriage

Abstract

All through the centuries the various Churches have always steadily opposed family limitation. The Roman Catholic Church resolutely condemned the avoidance of parenthood, whilst the others, the Jews for instance, made a less energetic stand against this tendency. The question now is whether this more or less active opposition on the part of the Churches had any influence on the declining birth rate, whether the Church has been able to check the drop in the birth rate or has at least succeeded in retarding it.