Fr Peter McVerry tells Tommy Tiernan people should 'live simply, share generously'
Fr Peter McVerry: 'Homeless people are the most important people in my life'
A prominent advocate told The Tommy Tiernan Show people should share their excess wealth to combat homelessness.
Fr Peter McVerry said he doesn’t want people to give up their wealth as then they will then be in need of his services. Instead, he asks people in privileged situations to “share generously.”
“The situation Jesus was in was a very different situation [to today]. I'm not asking people to give up their wealth. If they become homeless they'll be coming to me,” he said.
“I think what the gospel would call [on us to do] today in our western, very wealthy world is to live simply, share generously.”
When Tiernan asked him who he loves, he said the homeless are the most important people in his life but beyond that, he didn’t believe he has any love in his life.
“There are people I respect and they're generally people who are fighting for justice, who are fighting for those on the margins, they’d be the people I respect, but I wouldn't say I love anybody in that sense,” he said.
“Love means to me that you give your life to somebody [and] that somebody becomes the most important person in your life. Homeless people are the most important people in my life, and there isn't anybody who will distract me from homeless people in that sense.”
Funeral director David Gowan appeared on the show with his daughter Bríd, a fellow undertaker as well as a singer. He shared his beliefs about the human spirit after death.
“There's something very spiritual about the deceased person. I believe the spirit is around. I believe the spiritual world is much greater than this one down here, [it has] more power, bigger,” he told Tiernan.
“I think things happen in general that we just couldn't say were a coincidence, certain things. I do believe the spirit is there for a good while after the person passes on. I think it stays around for as long as it needs to. I do believe it moves on somewhere else. I don't know where that is. I do believe it waits around and it will mind people.”
Also on the show, campaigner Robbie Lawlor spoke to Tiernan about his life after a HIV diagnosis and said miseducation is the reason Ireland has the highest HIV transmission rate in Europe.
“I know men and women who have sex the first time and get HIV, it only takes one time to get HIV. I don't want to scare people but that's just a reality, that's the reality for so many men and women across Ireland,” he said.
“We have this idea that people who have HIV are highly promiscuous and who cares if they are? I know highly promiscuous people, but they're very good at using condoms. We have to dismantle that kind of representation of HIV that we all have because I think it's to our own downfall. I knew all my previous partners. They didn't look sick. [I thought] how the hell do I have HIV, because in my head it was only the really promiscuous people who got STIs and that's not the case.
“There's a lot of unlearning that we have to do collectively because HIV rates have never been higher in Ireland than they are today. We get around 500 new diagnoses every year. We're one of the highest in Europe per rate of diagnosis.”
When asked why, he stated: “Lack of education.”
