National Catholic Register reports on a commentary by Donald DeMarco lamenting the modern rejection of children as gifts from God, citing declining birth rates and rising abortion rates in North America. The article contrasts contemporary fear of children with Sacred Scripture’s portrayal of children as blessings, models of humility, and sources of joy. It invokes St. John Henry Newman’s reflections on childlike virtues and laments humanity’s loss of innocence and spiritual vision. Yet this otherwise orthodox-sounding piece is fatally compromised by its uncritical appeal to a manifest heretic—Newman—and its silence on the conciliar revolution that has normalized the very evils it deplores.
The Idolatry of Conciliar “Saints”: Newman as Oracle
The article’s central rhetorical device—a lengthy quote from St. John Henry Newman—is not merely ill-advised; it is doctrinally poisonous. Newman, far from being a model of Catholic orthodoxy, was a progenitor of Modernism, whose theological evolution laid the intellectual groundwork for the post-conciliar apostasy. His doctrine of the development of dogma—the idea that Christian doctrine “develops” over time, even into forms unrecognizable to earlier generations—was condemned in advance by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) as “the synthesis of all heresies.” To cite Newman as an authority on the spiritual meaning of childhood is to invoke a man whose legacy is inseparable from the destruction of dogmatic integrity.
Moreover, Newman’s canonization by the conciliar sect in 2019 was not an act of the true Church but a political gesture by a heretical antipope (Francis) to legitimize theological liberalism. As established in the Defense of Sedevacantism dossier, a manifest heretic cannot be pope; thus, Newman’s “canonization” is null, void, and of no effect—a fact the article conveniently omits. Worse still, Newman requested burial in the same grave as his “friend” Father Ambrose St. John, a detail that raises grave moral questions and underscores his entanglement with the very clerical corruption that pre-conciliar saints like St. Charles Borromeo fought to eradicate.
The Silence That Condemns: No Mention of the Conciliar Betrayal
While the article rightly decries abortion and declining birth rates, it commits the most damning omission possible: it never identifies the root cause of these evils—the systematic dismantling of Catholic moral teaching by the conciliar sect since Vatican II. The “fear of children” is not an isolated cultural phenomenon; it is the direct fruit of Dignitatis Humanae (1965), which enshrined religious liberty as a human right contrary to the perennial teaching of Gregory XVI (Mirari Vos, 1832) and Pius IX (Syllabus of Errors, prop. 77–79). By affirming man’s right to choose his religion—including the “religion” of secular humanism—the conciliar sect opened the floodgates to contraception, abortion, and the commodification of human life.
The article’s author, Donald DeMarco, writes as if these catastrophes befell a faithful Church. But there is no faithful Church in the structures occupying the Vatican. The “bishops” and “priests” who fill its ranks are, with rare exceptions, modernists who deny the propitiatory nature of the Mass, promote interfaith worship, and silence the prophetic voice of Humanae Vitae (1968)—itself a document ignored even by its own author’s successors. To lament abortion without naming the conciliar revolution is to treat a symptom while ignoring the metastasizing cancer.
The Child as Sacramental Sign: A Doctrine Erased
Sacred Scripture indeed teaches that “children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3) and that “unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). But the fullness of this teaching includes the reality of original sin and the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation. The article, however, presents the child in sentimental, naturalistic terms—“a beam of sunlight,” “trailing clouds of glory”—without once mentioning that an unbaptized child is not in the state of grace and cannot enter heaven according to the ordinary means established by Christ (Council of Florence, Cantate Domino, 1441).
This omission is not accidental. It reflects the anthropocentric humanism of the conciliar sect, which reduces grace to a metaphor and elevates human dignity above divine law. As Pope Pius XI warned in Quas Primas, the rejection of Christ’s kingship over families and nations leads directly to the “shaking of family stability” and the “destruction of society”—precisely the conditions DeMarco laments. Yet he offers no remedy except vague appeals to “humility” and “joy,” ignoring the only true solution: the restoration of the social reign of Christ the King and the sacramental life of the true Church.
The Millstone and the Modernist Millstone
The article quotes Our Lord’s terrifying warning: “Whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck” (Matthew 18:6). But who are the real offenders today? Not merely the abortionist—though his guilt is immense—but the “bishops” and “theologians” who have taught generations that contraception is permissible, that marriage is a human contract dissolvable at will, and that the state has no duty to recognize the true religion. These are the ones who have led millions of “little ones” into the sin of cooperating with the culture of death.
The Syllabus of Errors condemned the proposition that “the Church has no power of using force, nor has she any temporal power” (prop. 24) and that “the best theory of civil society requires that popular schools… be freed from all ecclesiastical authority” (prop. 47). Yet this is precisely the program implemented by the conciliar sect, which surrendered Catholic education to the secular state and reduced the Church to a NGO advocating “human rights.” The result? A generation that sees children as burdens, not blessings—because it has been taught to see God as optional.
Conclusion: Return to the Source or Perish
The tragedy of modern man is not merely that he fears children, but that he has forgotten the God who sends them. As Pius XI declared, “When God and Jesus Christ were removed from laws and states… the entire human society had to be shaken.” The remedy is not more commentary from the conciliar press, but a return to the immutable Tradition: the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacraments administered by validly ordained priests, and the social kingship of Christ over all nations.
Let us reject the false wisdom of Newman and the sentimental humanism of the neo-church. Let us embrace the hard truth: outside the true Church—enduring in the faithful who reject the conciliar abomination—there is no salvation, no sanctity, and no future for the family. As the Syllabus teaches, “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself… with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” is the final and most damning error (prop. 80). The child is indeed a gift from God—but only if we receive him in the grace of Christ, through the one true Church He founded.
Source:
Our Culture Has Forgotten a Child Is a Gift From God (ncregister.com)
Date: 15.06.2026