Rite and Reason: Dr Seán Brady questions the spiritual and moral values which accompany our economic success
The late Cardinal Hume always kept three simple but striking pictures on the wall facing his desk at Westminster Cathedral. To the left was a small charcoal etching of Mother Teresa. To the right, was a small oil painting given to him by an MP he had received into the Catholic Church. In the middle, obviously placed there to catch his eye while he worked, was the large colour photograph of a child. The child was smiling, but not with the normal, happy, carefree smile of a child fascinated by a camera. Rather, with the faint, painful smile of a child who wanted to lift a hand to remove the flies from his face but couldn't, for want of food or water. It was the photograph of one of more than 15 million children who died that year, and every year since, through our failure to share the ample resources of our world.
The images of such children have returned to our screens in recent days as the UN food organisation struggles to get emergency food aid to over one million starving children in Niger. Like the initial response to Hurricane Katrina, the stark contrast between our capacity to plan for and respond rapidly to the threat of war, and our ability to plan for and respond rapidly to situations of great humanitarian need, could not be more compelling. We live in a world of unprecedented technology and global infrastructure. Yet the largest and most predictable human tragedies in the world continue to evade our ability to address them. This suggests, at least in part, that the shift to a more global consciousness has not yet been met with a shift towards a more global conscience. We are still inclined to look after our own interests first, both as individuals and as states.
In response the Gospel proposes the virtue of solidarity and commitment to the common good. Such solidarity, in the words of the recently-published pastoral letter of the Irish Bishops' Conference, Towards the Global Common Good, "is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are really responsible for all".
It involves what the recently-published Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church describes as "a shared humanism based on solidarity". The Scriptures remind us how quickly the legitimate pursuit of personal or national economic growth can become separated from its proper orientation towards the common good, and from the principle of the universal destiny of the goods of the earth.
There is ample evidence in our own society that the richer we get, the more inclined we are to think of compassion, aid and the selfless service of others as luxury items, things to be considered only when everything else is paid for and done.
This creeping moral and psychological disconnection from the needs of the poor is always a warning sign that legitimate economic growth is becoming separated from the values of justice, solidarity and compassion which ensure a society worthy of the human person. One such warning sign emerged last week in the form of the UN Report on Human Development. At the same time as celebrating the welcome news that Ireland is now eighth in the world in terms of human development, an extraordinary achievement by any standards, the report also indicated that Ireland has one of the most unequal economies in the world.
At the same time as celebrating our legitimate pride in having become one of the "most globalised" economies of the world, we heard of homeless people dying on our streets and of 150,000 Irish children living in poverty. Such gaping inequalities are a scandal and a profound challenge to our reputation as a generous and caring nation. They raise urgent questions about the spiritual and moral values which accompany our welcome economic success.
One sign of hope and an important source of encouragement for the developing world, however, was the announcement last week by the Government that it would achieve the target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for development aid by 2012. In the context of a UN Summit which became sadly distracted from its intended focus on the Millennium Development Goals, this was a courageous and generous commitment which deserves our wholehearted recognition and support.
Reaching such a target may one day have implications for public funding at a national level. It is then that our individual commitment to the global common good will be tested. Perhaps if, like Cardinal Hume, we keep before us the image of that child who will die every three seconds, and the 15 million children who will die every year the world takes to reach that target, we will find ourselves ready, in the Gospel sense, to "lose oneself" for the sake of others. This is the first and most demanding principle of the global common good.
Dr Seán Brady is Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland and president of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference