Promoting marriage is a “social and economic necessity,” Pope Benedict says in his latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate.

The new document, which focuses on economic and social questions, warns that the economic uncertainty created by deregulation and increased labour mobility, has created “new forms of psychological instability” which have made it more difficult for people to plan to marry.

This, the encyclical continues, has led to “situations of human decline”, as well as a waste of resources.

“It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person,” it goes on.

“In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society, and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.”

The document also argues that, while concerns about the environment are valid, our duties towards the environment “are linked to our duties towards the human person”.

It also points out that declining birth rates have become “a crucial problem for highly affluent societies”

This falling birth rate, the encyclical says, “also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the “brain pool” upon which nations can draw for their needs”.