The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has urged lawyers and politicians to work towards achieving a more just, equal and caring society.
Serving what is "right and truthful" will not be determined "by slick spin-doctoring or by smart sound-bytes used often to attack the other, rather than to search for or ascertain the truth", Most Revd Diarmuid Martin warned.
"Spin may gain popularity for the day, but it leaves the real problems to be addressed tomorrow. A healthy society requires courage, honesty, integrity, equity and solidarity,” he said.
While noting that scandals have damaged the credibility of what the Catholic Church brings to society here, he also urged that the "fundamental role of faith for the building of societies which are truly pluralist should not be overlooked".
In his homily delivered at a mass at St Michan’s Catholic Church, Halston Street, Dublin, today to mark the opening of the new law term, Dr Martin said these difficult times "are perhaps going to be among the more creative times for our society in Ireland".
"We pray this morning for the gift of discernment as we face a challenging future for Ireland. We pray for discernment in juridical culture, we pray for a discernment in the administration of justice which goes beyond the mere pragmatic and the positivistic and … fosters welcome and understanding and unity between people of different backgrounds".
What is required is "a wise, enlightened and broad vision of juridical culture which asserts its legitimate independence from political power and influence", he said
Addressing a congregation including judges of the Supreme and High Courts, Attorney General Maire Whelan, representatives of the Scottish and Northern Ireland judiciaries and Garda Commissioner, Dr Martin said we live at a time of rapid change and ferment, including ferment in the church and "welcome ferment in reflection on our educational system".
There was also "the shock of economic downturn which affects us all" and reminds us of the interdependence of nations and economies and "the fact that mistakes and inattention of the past inevitably come home to haunt in the future."
He found it "particularly saddening" that "a moment of forward-looking cultural change and reflection on society, as we have today, occurs precisely at a moment in which the economic means to turn dreams into reality is not there."
"We find ourselves perhaps today in an unhappy situation because in our self-assuredness we lost the art of asking the right questions."
Dr Martin referred to the recent address by Pope Benedict to the German parliament in which he described the fundamental task of politics as being "to serve right and to fight against the dominion of wrong". Those who work for justice must also serve right and truth through protecting the weak and curbing the natural arrogance of the powerful, he said.
Such a challenging role will not be attained just by systems but above all by people, the Archbishop said. "A just society is above all the fruit of people who live justly. A caring society will be attained above all by people who live as caring people."
As individual responsibility is exercised within a society, culture and network of relationships and ideas, the gift of discernment was critical, he said. "Discernment begins with the ability to ask the right questions and address them in the right manner,” he said. Discernment requires we seek the truth both in tradition and in progress, he added.
Progress was a "two-edged sword", the possible "should always be directed to the good" and humanity should guard against creating societies "profoundly inhuman".
Warning against overlooking the "fundamental values" which have held our society together, he said the Constitution, sometimes presented as "a fossilised child of its time" had, within its limitations, "proven to be a document ably capable of guaranteeing rights and curbing power, including the power of the State". The Constitutional Convention to be launched soon must be "a moment of true discernment", he urged.
A separate service was held at St Michan’s Church of Ireland Church on Church Street, Dublin.
