birthrate
is not entirely due to the voluntary control of procreation. It
is undoubtedly true that certain other elements, common under
civilized conditions, such as the postponement of marriage in
women to a comparatively late age, tend to diminish the size of
the family. But when all such allowances have been made, the
decline is still found to be real and large. This has been shown,
for instance, by the statistical analyses made by Arthur
Newsholme and T.H.C. Stevenson, and by G. Yule, both published in
_Journal Royal Statistical Society_, April, 1906.

Some have supposed that, since the Catholic Church forbids
incomplete sexual intercourse, this movement for the control of
procreation will involve a relatively much greater increase among
Catholic than among non-Catholic populations. This, however, is
only correct under certain conditions. It is quite true that in
Ireland there has been no fall in the birthrate, and that the
fall is but little marked in those Lancashire towns which possess
a large Irish element. But in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and other
mainly Catholic countries, the decline in the birthrate is duly
taking place. What has happened is that the Church--always alive
to sexual questions--has realized the importance of the modern
movement, and has adapted herself to it, by proclaiming to her
more ignorant and uneducated children that incomplete intercourse
is a deadly sin, while at the same time refraining from making
inquiries into this matter among her more educated members. The
question was definitely brought up for Papal judgment, in 1842,
by Bishop Bouvier of Le Mans, who stated the matter very clearly,
representing to the Pope (Gregory XVI) that the prevention of
conception was becoming very common, and that to treat it as a
deadly sin merely resulted in driving the penitent away from
confession. After mature consideration, the Curia Sacra
Poenitentiaria replied by pointing out, as regards the common
method of withdrawal before emission, that since it was due to
the wrong act of the man, the woman who has been forced by her
husband to consent to it, has committed no sin. Further, the
Bishop was reminded of the wise dictum of Liguori, "the most
learned and experienced man in these matters," that the confessor
is not usually called upon to make inquiry upo