Céifin Conference:Like all tigers, the Celtic specimen can be a "man-eater" in a society which worships possessions, prestige and power, Bishop of Limerick Dr Donal Murray has said.
Speaking at the 10th annual Céifin Conference in Ennis yesterday, Dr Murray said that Irish society faced an urgent challenge to resist the temptations faced by Jesus in the Gospel - as in worshipping affluence, the celebrity culture, and the use of power.
"The abuse of power, whether in the church, or in governments, or by the wealthy or privileged, can destroy those it coerces - and those who use it," Dr Murray said.
In a wide-ranging address on the theme of religion and the secular in contemporary Ireland, Dr Murray questioned assumptions that religion had no place in public discourse, and that there was no space for views influenced by religious belief in a rational discussion about what was best for society.
The "same argument did not seem to apply" to people who were agnostic or atheist - holding views which had also arisen in the context of "assumptions not shared by everybody", Dr Murray noted.
Faith now appeared in the public arena "in the form of controversies, scandals and personalities, rather than questions about God", Dr Murray said, and moral questions were "often misrepresented as a clash between secular and religious views".
A number of areas of life were now "religion-free zones", including soap operas. In these programmes, "nobody talks about God, and, since the departure of Glenroe[the former RTÉ soap], nobody goes to church," Dr Murray said, adding that The Simpsonscould represent an exception.
However, he believed that there wasn't a conflict between religion and the secular in Irish society, but between "those who think there are areas of life where God is irrelevant, and those who believe that such a position contradicts the very meaning of faith - and of secular reality as well".
Referring to the role of church and State in education, Dr Murray quoted from a work published in 1953 which pointed to "the absurdity of the State failing to see its own limits and seeing itself as an educator in its own right".
"How could it set out to prepare people for life when it can give no coherent account either of what a person is or what life is for?" he asked. "The State as such cannot answer these philosophical or religious questions, but it must not fail to understand how fundamental these questions are in the motivation and self-understanding, and indeed the educational development, of individuals and groups."
The first Céifin conference had taken the title "are we forgetting something?", and this affluent society had certainly "forgotten something" in terms of the contrast between comfortable affluence and the existence of poverty, intimidation, unemployment, violence and drugs close by, Dr Murray said.
Last year's address by Pope Benedict at the University of Regensburg had generated a great deal of controversy, but had also raised very significant questions about the future of civilisation, Dr Murray continued.
"The advance of science has brought extraordinary benefits, but it has tempted us to think that only what can be scientifically proven can be regarded as true," Dr Murray said. "That in turn has led us to view ourselves through this restricted and reductive lens."