In the article about working women and their role in the world economy, The Times (November 1) incorrectly stated that "a high proportion of women in work, such as the nordic states and France, tend to have high birth rates.

"Meanwhile, countries with fewer working women, such as Italy and Japan, often have lower birth rates".

The reason for this is not, of course, that working outside the home makes it easier for women to have children.

Any woman who works outside the home and has a family to look after can vouch that it is not so.

The truth lies in the fact that in certain countries, like France and Sweden for example, which with their liberal contraceptive policies and abortion laws effectively discouraged women from embarking on motherhood, realised over time and to their dismay that birth-rates were falling so dramatically that the future economic and social wellbeing of their respective countries was threatened.

Unable, for political and other reasons, to backtrack on these policies, they embarked on massive programmes of social and other benefits to encourage women, both those who work inside the house and those who do not, to have more children and larger families.

This is now reaping its reward, unlike in those countries which, having arrived later with contraceptive programmes and abortion laws, are finding it hard to accept the fact that there is a very high price to pay when God's laws are flagrantly flouted and that action, to the tune of massive amounts of money, has to be taken to remedy future desperate situations.

Europe itself is, of course, an aging continent, with an ever-increasing number of elderly to be cared for, putting tremendous strain on the countries' social welfare and health budgets and with fewer young people to man factories and pay pensions. Apart from the revaluation of motherhood, the answer put forward by many - and this as is already happening in various European countries - lies in immigration from developing countries which, rather than being seen as a threat, can be considered an economic resource and a cultural richness.

This will mean that in a few decades' time, Europe as we know it today will change its face radically.

For those who, in the future, even if they are in a minority, will still hold on to the Christian faith upon which European culture is built, this will provide a splendid opportunity to propose, by word and example, the Lord's message.

This never tires or betrays and, when all is said and done, is the only message able to fully satisfy the deepest and often unconfessed yearnings in the heart of men and women of all time.