Communities should not feel doomed to submit to the "evil" of drug abuse, a bishops' conference heard at the weekend. Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor told the Irish Bishops' Drugs Initiative in Maynooth that many parishes were now tackling the problem effectively by offering support to addicts and educating young people of the dangers of drugs.
He said a review of how parishes have been responding to alcohol and drug problems gave hope that communities could respond by working together with other agencies to help prevent drug abuse and provide treatment for addicts.
"Their evaluations assure us that even in the face of what often seems an intractable and insurmountable problem for families . . . we are not doomed to submit to the powers and agents of darkness," Bishop Treanor said.
"The review manifests the responsibility of all - individual, parish, community and society - for addressing drugs and alcohol problems. It offers a road map for a vibrant response . . . to provide and facilitate holistic training and to foster partnership among all interested parties."
Among examples of best practice in the review, Alcohol Drugs - Parishes Respond, were parishes which have promoted an "inter-agency" approach by working with civic service providers.
The report also recommends carrying out a needs assessment within the parish community.
This would ensure schools in the parish are able to fulfil their role in prevention through the Social Personal Health Education Programme and their substance use policy, availing of the preparation for the sacrament of confirmation as an opportunity to offer support and training for parents and to promote the fact that faith plays an integral part as a protective factor in drug prevention.
The review of parishes' response to the drugs problem follows more than a decade of experience, co-operative work and engagement with addiction, Bishop Treanor said.
"Here the [Catholic] Church is addressing a tragic and disquieting element of contemporary life and empowers parish communities to respond to an evil which often seems to defy response," he added.
Bishop Eamonn Walsh, vice-president of the Irish Bishops' Drugs Initiative, told the conference there were also many practical ways that parishes could contribute to the prevention of drug and alcohol problems.
"If a parish centre makes a room available to a self-help group, then it is already making a pastoral response to those who need and deserve support. Our initiative combines the spiritual with the practical, so that our responses will address the whole person: body, mind and spirit," Bishop Walsh said.
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(Source: CIN)