SiL-Could the Newman Demographic Survey give some statistics to show whether the average English Catholic family is larger than the average nonCa tholic family?
I am convinced that my wife and I are no more naturally fertile than the average married couple. At the age of 37, we have five children, and another is expected: not an alarming rate of reproduction for thirteen years of marriage when one considers that contraceptives are unlawful for Catholics.
And yet, on surveying the English Catholic families known to me. 1 find that we have far outstripped !TWA of them in numbers. There are. it seems to me, aspects of this phenomenon that deserve the serious consideration of our pastors and moral theologians.
But I am going by personal observation only. Some statistics are needed so that we may judge whether the implications of the situation are as serious for English Catholicism as they appear to be.
Derek W. .1. Whitfield, T.O.S.E.
P.O. Box 1493, Kampala, Uganda.