The auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Fiachra O Ceallaigh, was applauded by an overflow congregation at 11 a.m. Mass in the Procathedral on Christmas Day when he appealed for an amnesty for refugees in this State.
"Would it not be a wonderful way for us in this largely Christian country to show how the coming of God on earth, the Incarnation, has concrete implications for us - if an amnesty were granted to those refugees and asylum seekers who are already here or who were here by a certain date. Never before has the country been in such a strong economic position, to show such generosity in a concrete Christian fashion."
O Ceallaigh He said he believed that not only would the granting of such an amnesty be morally commendable but he had established it would be legally permissible as well as socially and economically justifiable.
Addressing the same theme, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath, the Most Rev Richard Clarke, said: "It would seem that the holy family were better treated in Egypt than are many refugees today in Ireland."
How we treated those on the edge of our society was a more important indicator of what we are as a people than whether the Celtic tiger continues roaring, he said at St Patrick's cathedral, Trim.
"The fact that refugees are being brutalised by those who should feel compassion for them, the fact that the infant mortality rate for Travellers in Ireland is more than twice the national level - those facts can be relegated to statistics and the impersonal, but if we wish to do that let's call off Christmas as well."
Bishop Clarke also spoke of how "we can far too easily get pruriently interested in the private lives of politicians and public figures, and forget the real scandals. Yes, aspects of public people's private lives may impact on the public dimensions to their work, but let's keep that impersonal (his italics), and get personal about things that really degrade our society - our smugness and unconcern in the face of deprivation, injustice and cowardice . . . "
Addressing the bombing of Iraq, "a matter over which most Irish people have kept strangely quiet", he asked if anyone believed it had made the future more secure.