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Life is always a good. <\/span><\/strong><\/span> <\/p>\n WHAT<\/strong> happens to people’s minds when their culture \u2014 a culture of death <\/em>\u2014 informs them that human life is not only disposable but apparently an existential evil to the planet? What happens to the psyche of children and young adults who are repeatedly told that they are just a random by-product of evolution, that their existence is “overpopulating” the earth, that their “carbon footprint” is ruining the planet? What happens to seniors or the ill when they are told that their health issues are costing the “system” too much? What happens to youth who are encouraged to reject their biological sex? What happens to one’s self-image when their worth is defined, not by their inherent dignity but by their productivity?\u00a0<\/p>\n If what Pope St. John Paul II said is true, that we are living the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation (see The Labor Pains: Depopulation?<\/em>) <\/a>\u2014 then I believe St. Paul provides the Understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power.<\/strong> (2 Tim 3:1-5)<\/span><\/p>\n People seem so sad to me these days. So few carry themselves with a “spark.” It’s as if the light of God has gone out in many souls (see The Smoldering Candle<\/em>)<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2026in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel.<\/strong> \u2014Letter of His Holiness POPE BENEDICT XVI to All the Bishops of the World, March 12, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And this should be no surprise, for as the culture of death spreads its devaluing message to the ends of the earth, so too, are people’s sense of worth and purpose diminished.<\/p>\n …because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold.<\/strong> (Matt 24:12)<\/span><\/p>\n However, it is precisely in this darkness that we followers of Jesus are called to shine like stars… [1]<\/sup><\/a>Phil 2:14-16<\/span><\/span>
\nThis is an instinctive perception and a fact of experience, <\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nand man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is so.<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nWhy is life a good?<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2014POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II,<\/span>
\nEvangelium Vitae<\/a>, <\/em>34<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Gangs2.jpg\")
answers as to what happens to people who have been so dehumanized:<\/p>\n\n