Sobriety is key to freedom, pioneer event told

Sobriety and temperance allowed people "to be free and in control of their lives", the chairman of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (PTAA) board of management, Father Micheal MacGreil SJ, has said.

"The moderate self-denial involved in being a pioneer gives that extra strength which enables us to resist the pressures that can lead to indulgence in other areas of behaviour. Generally speaking, a sober and temperate person tends to be more reliable and socially more effective," he said.

Father MacGreil was speaking in Nairobi at a special pan-African pioneer congress. The pioneer movement in Africa was part of the positive heritage brought from Ireland by our missionaries (religious and lay), he said. Its growth in Africa was "in no way a quasi-colonial development".

One of the universal dimensions was "its call on us to asceticism in our lives and to the practice of a (moderate) degree of self-denial". In his opinion there was "no freedom without self-denial".

He referred to how the late Martin Luther King "would fast for 48 hours whenever he was arrested and incarcerated in order to give him self-control so that he would not be intimidated into `hitting back' at his aggressors."

This asceticism made him a great Christian (pacifist) leader. "Likewise, the self-denial of pioneers helps us to resist the temptations of peer pressures that impair our freedom," he said.

It benefited all aspects of society - family, religion, politics, education, economic success and sports. Pioneers are encouraged to become committed citizens in all of these aspects of life.

"The pioneer is not so much called to give up drink but, rather, to take up life," he said.

But he warned against giving the impression of being "better than thou". There was a great difference between humble good example and pride, he said. "The former elicits a positive response from people while the latter tends to repel them."

Father MacGreil praised the conference organising committee for selecting "Africa Sober, Africa Free" as the motto of the conference, remarking that "Ireland Sober, Ireland Free" had been used by pioneers and other advocates of temperance and sobriety in Ireland.