Position of church is compared to a monopoly

The director general of the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC), Mr John Dunne, has compared the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland to that of many public sector monopolies. It was now "undergoing the necessary process of change following deregulation and market liberalisation," he said.

Speaking at a weekend conference in Dublin on "Economic Values & the Common Good", organised by the Irish Centre for Faith and Culture, he said that, despite a major contribution to the common good and great achievements "monopolistic power, in some cases encourages complacency, detachment from the needs of consumers, as well as isolation and insulation from economic and societal realities".

Over the past 2,000 years the church had managed to change when it was wise to change "but to change so slowly that no one noticed at the time". Its problem now was the sheer rate of change "to such a point that it is no longer possible to respond without being seen to respond".

The church had been adept at understanding the nature of change in Irish society but had been less sure-footed in making the necessary adjustments to its own institutional structures and practices, he said. "The inevitable outcome for any organisation that refuses to, or is incapable of, adjustment and adaptation is a loss of competitiveness and erosion in market share."

In the case of the church this was "most clearly manifested in falling vocations and Mass attendance, particularly among young people. This process is unlikely to be reversed, particularly if the church continues along its current course," he said.

Mr Dunne continued that, "put bluntly, it doesn't matter how good your product or service is if it does not meet the needs of the consumer. This approach is as relevant to the church as it is to business. As in business, it is pointless bemoaning economic and social changes, denying the reality, demands and needs of the lives of ordinary people."

The Bishop of Limerick, Dr Murray, said the social concern of the church was not founded on any desire to enter the spheres of economics or politics, but arose from "Christian reflection on the world in the light of the Gospel. So what the church expresses in this area is not a political policy or ideology."

On social solidarity, he said: "It is not enough that those who have more should discuss among themselves what crumbs may be allowed to fall from the rich man's table. The virtue of solidarity requires that each voice, without exception, should be heard around the table as participants in the discussion."

Mr Moore McDowell, of UCD's economics department, said there appeared to be fundamental differences between the way economists see the world "and the implicit economic world view of moral theologians". He queried the Irish bishops' scepticism, in their recent Prosperity with a Purpose document, " about the outcome of market-determined resource allocation". He suggested that the preference system underlining most moral pronouncements "is not a preference system which most people, even moral theologians, perhaps, would accept as generally applicable to human decision-making".

Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, lecturer in social policy at UCD, said that "more intensive work is needed to reduce unemployment from 5 per cent to 2 per cent than to reduce it from 10 per cent to 5 per cent". Those still unemployed "are drawn in an even more concentrated way from those with poor levels of skills and education, or who face multiple problems in their lives", she said.