Thoughts on Having Large Families While Growing Up

When you think of those having large families, whom do you think of?

Conservative Catholics, primarily, right? Yes, and I guess the Muslims too. And don’t forget the Mormons, either.

Yet, after those examples, it becomes difficult to think up what people are having large families anymore.

Why is this?

BLAME FALLS ON ADOPTING THE CULTURE OF DEATH

The fault lies in the adoption of the Culture of Death within our society, especially by Christians—including Catholics.

The Culture of Death seeks to undermine every foundation for society, including the right to life and the importance of the family. Gone are the days where nuclear families—father, mother, children—are valued. In place of serving as the building block for a just society, autonomy and selfishness rule instead.

Our culture has become so hedonistic, it pits adults against children. It labels the latter as burdensome, expensive, and to-be-tolerated-in-small-numbers. This is how contraception and abortion remain rampant elements of Western society.

It has gotten to the point where society pretty well values death over life. Non-being over being.

As a result, few, if any, children are brought into the world. A hatred for children floats in the air, even if not spoken verbally.

BETTER TO EXIST THAN NOT TO

Contrast that depressing, limited worldview to what God expects. Heeding God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28, 9:7), faithful followers remain open to life. They follow the Natural Law, known to each man or woman, by way of reason.

They do not wish to put limits on God’s generosity. They do not wave off blessings God wishes to pour on them.

The truth is, being is better than non-being. Existence is better than non-existence.

WHO COULD BE MISSING?

Think of all the great saints we would be missing if Modernism’s novelty of limiting family size were pervasive for centuries, instead of decades.

Imagine if the parents of these great saints decided for themselves they would limit their family sizes to just two, just one, or even no children.

What follows is a brief list of saints having large families as children:

St. Basil of Caesarea (1 of 10) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Bernadette of Lourdes (1st of 7)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (3rd of 7)
St. Casimir of Poland (3rd of 13)
St. Catherine of Genoa (5th of 5)
St. Catherine of Siena (23rd of 25 children) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Charles Borromeo (3rd of 6)
St. Faustina Kowalska (3rd of 10)
St. Francis de Sales (1st of 13) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother (11th of 13)
St. Gianna Beretta Molla (herself the 10th of 13) (she also died to save her 4th child)
St. Hedwig (1 of 8)
St. Ignatius of Loyola (13th of 13)
St. Joan of Arc (4th of 5)
St. Louis de Montfort (1 of 18 children)
St. Mary Alacoque (5th of 7)
Pope St. Pius X (2nd of 11)
St. Robert Bellarmine (3rd f 10) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Teresa of Avila (3rd of 11) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Therese of Lisieux (9th of 9) (Doctor of the Church)
St. Thomas Aquinas (9th of 9) (Doctor of the Church)

Imagine how much our Church would be depraved, without these great saints—many of whom are doctors of the Church.

Of course, it’s not just saints we could list as examples. Here are famous Americans and other prominent figures having large families in their youth too:

Ludwig van Beethoven (3rd of 8)
Stephen Colbert (11th of 11)
Bing Crosby (4th of 7)
Celine Dion (14th of 14)
Benjamin Franklin (1 of 20)
Jim Gaffigan (6th of 6)
Mel Gibson (6th of 11)
Evander Holyfield (9th of 9)
Thomas Jefferson (3rd of 10)
President John F. Kennedy (1 of 9)
Wolfgang Mozart (7th of 7)
Bill Murray (1 of 9)
Conan O’Brien (3rd of 6)
Dolly Parton (1 of 12)
William Shakespeare (1 of 8)
Martin Sheen (7th of 10)
George Washington (5th of 10)

What if Mozart’s parents decided after the sixth kid they were through? Our world would never have been blessed with its greatest composer. Had the Washingtons stopped after their fourth, would America have won the Revolutionary War?

Had Jim Gaffigan’s parents decided they didn’t want anymore blessing from God after five children already, we would never have been made to laugh by their sixth child.

CONTRACEPTIVE MENTALITY

The truth is, the contraceptive mentality depraves future generations from ever existing.

But, when it comes down to it, isn’t that the goal of the Culture of Death? To cease existing?

Isn’t their goal to make prolonging the human race, as our human nature impels us to do, something unthinkable?

Why else are you made to feel guilty for harming the earth? As if you’re supposed to care more about your carbon footprint than your following God’s will for your family. As if the non-existing global warming takes precedence over fulfilling God’s commandments.

The Culture of Death worships the earth, instead of worshiping the One Who created it, in the beginning (Genesis 1:1).

Not only has our society forgotten God’s first command to be fruitful and multiply, but also his next that said mankind was to subdue and rule over the earth (Genesis 1:28).

YOUR TURN

What are your thoughts on the reluctance for having large families?
Do you ever wonder how many wonderful people we’re missing, thanks to the adoption of the Culture of Death?
Leave your comment below.

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Zakasnak

Dolly Parton is the *4th* of 12 children. That one stood out because of her television special over Christmas.

My brother is contributing to the large family trend. He & his wife have 7 little’uns. ♡
Kevin Kukla

Oh, okay, thanks for clarifying!
mikehorn

The “who is missing” argument is a really bad one for several reasons. Here are two.

1) Families before 100 years ago lost a lot of children and mothers to either the birth itself or to childhood disease, to include measles and typhus and dysentery. And the flu. A high pregnancy rate was very much needed just to maintain population because the lifespan was shorter and the infant mortality was very high. JS Bach had 20 children. A full 10 died as infants or children. Only 8 still lived when their father died, and only 4 of those had children of their own. So, JS Bach effectively had 4 children. And one wife died in childbirth.

2) We might not have saints, but we might also miss out on demons. What if Alois and Klara Hitler had stopped at 3 children? What if they were too tired or sick the night Adolf was conceived, but then conceived a different child the next day, with the same egg but a different sperm? That one act of non-Catholic marriage practice would have saved 60million people around the world. Fair trade, I say. Every child can go either way. The argument is as easily a support for contraception and abortion as it is against it.
papakevin

Historians say that if it were not for the Wesley’s and the Great Awakening in England that there would have been a Bloody revolution not unlike the one in France. John and Charles Wesley’s mother, Susana was the 25th of 25 children. You can almost overhear her mom and pop, “Aww, honey, we already have 24 children! What possible good could come from having 25?
mikehorn

There are others who think that while individual actions matter, they almost never happen in a vacuum. There are like minded people that as easily could have led the same change at the same time. Cultural and economic forces created the situation that was ripe for change.

I tend to not consider any of the great awakenings to be positive events. They can cause strife and warfare when true believers can’t respect different views.
papakevin

Mike, do you always side with Satan? He hates spiritual revivals and awakenings and so do you. He hates for children to come into the world and so do you. Are you also an advocate for abortion Mike?
mikehorn

Have you talked with Satan? How do you know what he/it wants?

For that matter, has God opened a cloud and spoken to you? Do the voices in your head bother those around you?

Your reply clearly illustrates why revivals and true believers and extremists of all sorts are dangerous to everyone. I disagree with you, therefore I am an ally of ultimate evil. When disagreement between good people is not possible, when the other is labeled evil, then all the acts that are permitted against evil are now morally acceptable. On the most mild end you get ostracization, oppression of minorities, silencing of dissent. On the hard end you get pogroms and cleansings, assault, inquisitions, genocide.

It also shuts down rational inquiry, which at its core not only encourages but absolutely requires questioning the existing belief. Science would not exist. Democracy would not exist. Philosophy would not exist. Art would be derivative, repetitive, boring.

Hard belief and unquestioned dogma are not good things. Labeling disagreement as satanic shuts down debate and creates enemies. If those enemies are in the minority, it leads to ugly actions from the majority. This is not worthy of debate or democracy.

There are a few places in the world today that think along your lines. Let me suggest Iran, Vatican City, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, North Korea. They all label dissent as evil. Their punishments range from enforced silence or excommunication and exile to prison to beheading or execution. Yes, revivals and strict dogmas are not good things given current and past examples.

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Thoughts on Having Large Families While Growing Up

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