A call to save young people from the culture of drug abuse has been made by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.
“ We have to reach out to young people when they fall and not allow them to be trapped forever,” he said. “It is sad to note, for example, in our Dublin of today the numbers of young people who die through drug related causes,” he said.
“We have as a community to show that we reject violent attempts to impose drug rule. Just as Jesus rejected the lifestyle of the despots and dictators, the corrupt and the unscrupulous of his time, we have to say a strong and visible ‘no’ to the despicable exploitation and violence of drug lords and merchants of death. We cannot overlook the evil of such violence,” he said.
Archbishop Martin was speaking in Bonnybrook parish where St Joseph the Artisan church has recently been refurbished and where he presided at the dedication of the altar at which Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the Phoenix Park last August.
It has been relocated to Bonnybrook on a permanent basis.
“It would be amiss for me not to recall that this parish has had its dark moments by the failures of the Church in dealing with the abuse of young people by clergy,” he said.
“ What saddens me most is how Church leadership failed, where families who suffered abuse pointed to the right response. They simply asked that no other family or child would have to undergo what happened in their family. They were not heard. We can never bury that hurt.”
The parish “can be a place where strong community addresses the challenges and the hurts of today, especially of young people,” he said.
St Joseph the Artisan Church first opened its doors in Dublin 17 in October 1969. Since then just minor works were carried out on the building. The church had to be closed for five months during the recent renovation process.
Parish priest Fr Joe Jones said he hoped people would come to see the altar used by Pope Francis. It was created for the closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families in Dublin last August by the specialist joinery group based at Maghera, Co Derry, and run by John Bosco O’ Hagan.
When commissioned to make the furniture for the sanctuary in the Phoenix Park Mr O’Hagan said he was aiming for simplicity.
“Everything is to be quite simple,” he said. “It is all straight lines and a simple manufacture. There is nothing elaborate about the whole thing. The Pope is a simple man and he seems to live a very simple life, so the furniture is simple as well.”
