Cardinal Sean Brady of Armagh and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin chaired a February 18 conference asking the question: "Who is my neighbour?"The session was organized by the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (ICJSA).
Bishop Raymond Field, the chairman of ICJSA, opened the day-long conference with a reflection on the Good Samaritan. The faithful, he said, should see their obligations toward their neighbors in their homes, parishes, local communities, and workplaces-- and also in their dealings with strangers.
“Our society is becoming more complex and, some would argue, more remote," Bishop Field remarked.
Adequate answers to questions about the moral responsibilities of citizens, he said, will require serious discussions among "faith groups, public-policy makers, media commentators."
Conor Gearty, a law professor from the London School of Economics, was the keynote speaker for the ICJSA event.
A specialists on human rights, Gearty said that the Catholic Church shares a great deal in common with human-rights activists.
Each group, he said, "is skeptical of the power of the market to deliver a just and fair society."
Another conference speaker, Lucy Fallon-Byrne, the director of the National Centre for Partnership and Performance, cited personnel policies as a means of fulfilling moral responsibilities.
She praised government efforts to promote "trust, respect, openness, equality, diversity, inclusiveness, and of course partnership" in the workplace. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce