Archbishop warns ‘growth and greed lead to division’

THE Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has warned that “uncontrolled growth” dominated by personal and intellectual greed and ambition inevitably leads to a divided society.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, in his homily at a Mass in Dublin yesterday to mark the start of the legal year, stressed a just and caring society will only be achieved by people who “live justly”, care and listen to each other in a form of exchange in mutual trust and respect.

Law is “not just about rules” and regulation in a market economy is “not just about norms”, he said.

“Law and regulation are there to protect the weak and the vulnerable and to curb the arrogance to which all are tempted.

“This is the mission of all who work within the administration of justice.

“The poor and the marginalised must see us as people who listen to and hear their voice and the dignity they possess: listening to the voice of the poor is indeed a characteristic of God himself.”

Addressing a congregation of senior judges and lawyers in St Michan’s, Halston Street, Dublin, the Archbishop said the bible provides many lessons about the type of society we wish to build today, in which people are understood and respected and where growth is seen as “always having a social purpose”.

Referring to the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel about people who hoped they would be able on their own to build a tower which would reach God, he said the Tower of Babel is the “image of uncontrolled growth, growth dominated by personal and intellectual greed and ambition”.

“The builders of the tower go ahead with their plan regardless of any other factor or person.

“They lose contact with the reality of what human and societal growth is all about.”

Uncontrolled growth “inevitably ends up in bringing about division and ends that pattern of trusting exchange which would be the mark of every participative democratic society,” Archbishop Martin said.

In his address at his church, also called St Michan’s, in Church Street, Dublin, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland, the Most Reverend Dr John RW Neill, said those in positions of trust and responsibility in society should not see themselves as mere pawns in a game, powerless and without influence.

Whether it is the Church or State in which positions of responsibility are held, the words of Jesus to “love your enemies, do good, lend and expect nothing in return” is not a legal framework but an attitude of mind, he said.

The attitude is drawn to a vision that is always trying to escape the confines of limits set by our systems, protocols and assumptions, he added.