Dr Connell warns of growing consumer culture

CHILDREN may turn to drugs and even suicide to escape a society that regards them as products, the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, has warned.

In his Christmas homily, Dr Connell said that little by little, "the language of the market" was affecting our view of society. Education was becoming a consumer product before long, we would be speaking of children themselves as products.

"Or is the reality already there, with in vitro fertilisation, surrogate motherhood, genetic engineering - not to speak of the kind of planning that looks on children more as a product of parental decision than as a gift to be welcomed with thanks?"

But children would not be happy as products, he told the attendance at Christmas Eve Mass in the Pro Cathedral. "They are bound to revolt against a parentage based on power they will see little meaning in a life produced by technology they may turn to drugs or even to suicide to escape such absence of meaning."

Dr Connell said Christmas was turning into a celebration of the "producer consumer culture".

In his Christmas Day address, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Rev Walter Empey, said society had become increasingly dehumanised and dehumanising, with more and more people "left out" in the "all consuming, consumer driven" environment in which we live.

Violence on television was desensitising people to the violence around them. A doubling in the number of violent attacks on women this year was "an appalling comment in a country that is pleased to call itself Christian".

The Dean of St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin, the Rev Maurice Stewart, also attacked the "growing but definite eroding of accepted human, Christian values" linked to crime and drugs culture. The murder of Veronica Guerin has caused outrage, but were people "settling back into the same old complacent rut" again, he asked.

The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, issued a new plea to those contemplated going down the road to violence in Northern Ireland to "stop and think".

The Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, said his new year wish was for the tide of alienation and suffering in the North to turn to peace and genuine understanding.