Society ravaged by selfish behaviour, says Brady

Paul O’Brien

Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Dr Sean Brady called for a greater effort to reduce the gap between rich and poor, lashing this country’s “failure to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth”.

Dr Brady stressed the need to pay taxes and “support the common good”, while criticising “the emptiness and transience and irreverence of so much in life today”.

He also spoke out against “the arrogance and pride of those who act as if there is no accountability to each other or to God, in this life or in the life to come”.

“They constantly tell us that there are lots of rights, but say little about responsibilities.”

The archbishop warned of the dangers of a society which “forgets its spiritual past”. The world was “ravaged by irresponsible, selfish behaviour, and obsessed with the here and now.” This was clearly evident in Ireland, “where the gap between rich and poor now stands as the second largest in the world - after that of the USA - a severe indictment of our failure to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth”.

The example of attending to the poor shown by monks and nuns in the Church “should motivate all of us to an ever-greater simplicity of lifestyle and question radically the prevailing strategies for the accumulation of wealth in Ireland today”, he added.

Such a shift would involve affirming the “obligation to contribute to the common good by taxation, support of neighbours and participation in voluntary organisations”.

Archbishop Brady was speaking at the blessing of Dom Augustine McGregor as the new abbot of the Mellifont Abbey in Collon, Co Louth.

He took the opportunity to query the things in life that currently motivate people - and appeared indirectly to criticise Irish social culture.

“What does ‘seeing good days’ really mean?” he asked. “Does it mean ‘leading a good life’ or ‘having a good time’?

Does it mean happiness?

“Which is more likely to lead to lasting happiness - leading a good life or merely having a good time?”

Faith, he said, offered “hope and a radical response to the spiritual listlessness and the emotional stress of the modern world”.