Suicide has become "a terrifying reality in our society", Ireland's Catholic bishops have said. They also believe there has been an "erosion of the recognition that suicide is an unthinkable option".
In a pastoral letter Life is for Living: A Reflection on Suicide, published yesterday to mark Day for Life 2004, they said "a dark cloud has gathered over Ireland in recent years. Many lives have ended in tragic circumstances, and others have been darkened by the heartbreaking reality of the death of a loved one through suicide".
In it the bishops called on everyone to join in an effort to make the causes of suicide more fully understood. They also want the care of those at risk to be "more urgent, and the families of those bereaved by suicide consoled and supported so that everyone in our country will feel cherished and cared for, especially in these tragic circumstances".
Particularly, they encouraged the development of suicide prevention strategies.
The bishops' pastoral affirms that "the lives of the young, in particular, have been overshadowed by this cloud. A recent survey by the World Health Organisation shows that, after road accidents, suicide is the second highest cause of non-disease deaths for young people in Europe".
In Ireland it was notable, they said, that "the ratio of young males to females who commit suicide is approximately four to one".
"Until the relatively recent past suicide was uncommon in Ireland," they continued, but now "much of what supported people and prevented them from considering suicide seems to have vanished. With economic success has come a weakening of faith for many and the loss of the sense of life as God's gift.
"With the laudable desire to remove the stigma which surrounded suicide from the families of those who have died has come the erosion of the recognition that suicide is an unthinkable option.
"While no one should wish to return to the old condemnatory attitudes or attempt to restore the stigma, the fact remains that all of us need to recognise that suicide has become a terrifying reality in our society, one which together we need to acknowledge and confront."
In particular, they said, there was a need "to recognise the danger that resignation to the idea that there is little we can do to prevent suicide could develop in our society today".
Life today promised easy and instant solutions to almost everything, they said. But there were "no easy or instant solutions to many of life's problems or tensions. Very often we find ourselves clinging to the wreckage of life when all that is left within us is the will which says 'hold on'. Many wonderful people have not been able to hold on but, equally, many great people have done so".
They paid tribute "to those who continue to struggle and we appeal especially to the young, who have all life's opportunities before them, to 'hold on'."
They noted the mobile phone advertising catch-phrase 'It is good to talk' . That was "a central truth of our human experience".
Those who suffered from deep pain needed to talk to someone who can listen. "Ireland is blessed with many good listeners and listening agencies, organisations such as Aware, the Samaritans and many others. They know how to listen. Call them," the bishops advised.
"God did not create any of us for our own destruction. He gave each one of us the gift of life and made the world for the enjoyment of all the generations that have lived and will live. He wants us to enjoy it. He wants each one of us to discover the joy of living in this world which he has created," they said.