Thiruvananthapuram, India, Sep 17, 2007 / 07:12 am
Worried over a dwindling Christian population in Kerala, a Catholic prelate in the southern Indian state is encouraging families to have more babies.
Archbishop Andrews Thazhath of Trichur has called for a parish poster campaign against birth control and abortion, reported UCA News. The prelate notes that Kerala Christians recorded zero growth in terms of percentage of the population during the decade between the last two national censuses.
In 1991, Christians accounted for 19.5 percent of Kerala's 29 million people. The state's population increased to nearly 32 million in 2001, but the percentage of Christians dropped to 19 percent.
The decline in Christian population has worried the Church for some time. In an August 2006 pastoral letter, Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of Ernakulam-Angamaly also urged his people to have more babies.