A document approved by Ireland’s Catholic bishops and published today has said “the main burden of responsibility for our current (financial) predicament lies with those who have in the recent past, and in some cases still do, exercise positions of leadership in our society”.
All, however, "made some contribution to the culture which has generated this crisis," it said.
The document criticises cuts in the minimum wage and stresses that "there must be an end to the bonus culture which is so destructive of civic virtue" and which is "one of the principal causes of the current malaise in Irish society."
It undermined "a belief in the value and ideals of public/civil service" while creating "unacceptably large income gaps between different sectors of society."
But, where social solidarity is concerned, the document concludes it was "by no means certain" Irish people would choose this over a low-tax policy.
It also calls for the strengthening of the family based on marriage between a man and a woman and describes abortion as a denial of the "inalienable right to life".
From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good, was prepared by the Catholic Bishops' Council for Justice and Peace (CJP) and launched at the Capuchin day centre in Dublin today.
In attendance were chairman of Trócaire, CJP member and Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby, CJP chair and Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin Ray Field, and Fr Eoin Cassidy, one of the document's authors.
Described as "not a political manifesto", it was however launched in anticipation of the general election on Friday and forthcoming elections in Northern Ireland.
Fr Cassidy said that in both contexts the electorate "have a responsibility to vote for people who support the common good" which he described as "the purpose of politics".
It was, he said, "difficult to countenance" the cut in the minimum wage in a situation "where large six figure salaries continue to be awarded to senior executives of semi-state companies".
