Sir, - Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul was in Ireland. It was an unforgettable visit. And he left us a wealth of teaching, asking us to allow Christ's truth to guide our family social and professional lives.
In this era of the Celtic Tiger, a particular aspect of the teaching has become very relevant. When the Pope was in Knock, as he consecrated this country to Our Lady, he prayed: "May prosperity never cause Irish men and women to forget God or abandon their faith. Keep them faithful in prosperity to the faith they would not surrender in poverty and persecution. Save them from greed, from envy, from seeking selfish or sectional interest. Help them to work together with a sense of Christian purpose and a common Christian goal, to build a just,, peaceful and loving society where the poor are never neglected and the rights of all, especially the weak, are respected."
The day he departed he left us with the following challenge: "The Irish people have to choose their way forward. Will it be the transformation of all strata of humanity into a new creation, or the way that many nations have gone, giving excessive importance to economic growth and material possessions, while neglecting the things of the spirit? The way of substituting a new ethic of temporal enjoyment for the law of God? The way of false freedom which is slavery to decadence? Ireland must choose. You, the present generation of Irish people, must decide; your choice must be clear and your decision firm."
What has happened in the past 20 years would suggest that many questionable choices have been made in Irish society. Yet it is never too late to change. We still have time to learn from the wisdom of John Paul II. - Yours, etc.,
Fr Walter Macken, Ely University Centre, Hume Street, Dublin.