IRISH SOCIETY failed in the recent past to put in place a health service it could have afforded, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has said. He also called for a new vision of society in Ireland.
Speaking in Lourdes yesterday, at the start of the annual Dublin diocesan pilgrimage to the shrine, he said: "Our Irish society in its days of wealth failed to leave as its inheritance a quality of healthcare that it should have been possible to achieve. Today our economic situation has changed and tough corrective measures and spending cuts are needed.
"The aim must not be, however, to get back to business as before or to restore a past model of society and economy whose weaknesses are now more clearly to be seen. The task, even amidst the necessary cost-cutting measures, is to create the beginnings of a new model, a new vision of society, the signs of which we can experience here in Lourdes in this experience of solidarity between young and old, sick and healthy, the hopeful and the anxious."
Over 3,000 people from Dublin are taking part in the pilgrimage, which this year marks the 150th anniversary of the apparitions at Lourdes. Among the Dublin pilgrims are 180 people who are ill or disabled, as well as 700 helpers, eight doctors and 55 nurses. Also taking part are over 50 priests and the former archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell.
Greeting the pilgrims, Archbishop Martin asked for prayers "for our priests. Priestly life and ministry is not easy in our changing world. Priests need your prayers and your affirmation". He was "so happy to have Cardinal Connell with us and that he will be celebrating our closing Mass at the Grotto, and I ask you finally to pray for me in my ministry".
