Archbishop critical of 'rush to law' for solutions

People today "rush to law" expecting it to provide "clean and clinical solutions" when they are not prepared to engage with deeper issues that have driven them towards, for example, a divorce, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, said yesterday.

He was speaking in St Michan's Church at one of two services held to mark the opening of the new law term.

Addressing a congregation which included the British Master of the Rolls, Lord Nicholas Phillips, and Ms Justice Denham and Ms Justice McGuinness of the Supreme Court, Dr Neill said: "The limited view of the law which insists that all is in order so long as you do not transgress certain boundaries has very little to do with accepting responsibilities.

"The individualism of what is often called the 'me' generation is quick to claim rights but slow to shoulder responsibilities."

He said legislators were constantly developing the framework for human rights.

That was to be welcomed, as were "the many steps towards a fuller acceptance of the whole principle of human responsibility - be that to the environment or to our real responsibilities to one another".

Dr Neill said legal practitioners were faced "with expectations that are often unreasonable".

"The expectation is that, through the due process of law, you can solve problems that go far beyond law, which have more to do with hurt, fractured relationships and dysfunctional family life...

"Likewise, when people claim damages to which, under law, they may well be entitled because of some damage or hurt done to them, that cannot be for them the end of the story.

Too often, money is seen as a solution, and the law as the means to that money.

"The law is made to carry a responsibility for human brokenness and for its healing, which it simply cannot carry."

Priests, doctors and lawyers respected the boundaries of their work but there was scope for a positive recognition that, at times, they have not only distinctive contributions but also distinctive limitations to accept, Dr Neill added.

"It is in that spirit of co-operation that I pray for the success of all your endeavours in this coming law term," he said.

Speaking at a Mass in St Michan's Roman Catholic Church, the Bishop of Killala, Dr John Fleming, told judges and lawyers that the "eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth" philosophy still exists and compromises or even denies the freedom to repent, forgive or be forgiven.

This was just one of the challenges facing legal practitioners, he said.

Only when society gives its citizens the security of forgiveness can they begin to repent and reform, Dr Fleming said.

He told the congregation their work in the multi-faceted task of the administration of justice brought many of them regularly face to face with human nature in all the elements of its weakness, brokenness and limitations.

Behind the defence and the bluster which often presented itself, there could be a crushed spirit and a fractured life, he said.