The magnificence of people must be allowed flourish

This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.

Michael Commane

Thursday’s RTÉs Prime Time reported on how children as young as seven are now involved in the drugs trade. Children are being manipulated by malevolent drug pushers to ferry drugs to addicts. 

The modern scooter makes it so easy for them to nip around the cities in jig time. They travel at speeds and in ways that make it impossible for the Garda to catch them. With their black hoodies they are impossible to identify.

There was a discussion on the Prime Time programme about the Garda presence on our streets, but everyone agreed that the problem is deeper than that. 

Most of these young people are living in dysfunctional homes, addictive parents, whether it be drugs, alcohol or gambling. And then there are those children, who experience domestic violence; all those issues are part of the cocktail that leads to so many of our problems. When people are not treated with dignity, feel alienated, there will be problems.

We have a US president behaving as a warmonger and a thug, who uses foul and vulgar language in the public square.

At present I’m reading Pope Leo; it’s called Magnificent Humanity. I’m not finished it yet but I sure will. It’s one of those books once you get into it you cannot put it down. At least that’s my experience with it.

It has received much good publicity around the world. Its official title is Magnifica Humanitas and it’s Pope Leo’s first encyclical. The Latin title and the word encyclical sound highfalutin and may easily put people off reading it.

It has been acclaimed as a masterpiece in warning the world about the potential dangers of AI.

But there is much more to it than that. And where I am at the moment in my reading,  Leo is concentrating on the importance of the dignity of the human person.

Just read these lines: ‘The Gospel remains relevant because it provides the criteria for recognising what humanises or dehumanises and what liberates or oppresses in ever-changing situations.’ He goes on to refer to Pope Paul VI who said that as long as there are people in the world who are excluded from the development befitting human dignity, the Christian community cannot be content with a theoretical proclamation of peace.

Pope Leo later talks about a church that must be capable of listening to the cry of the poor, migrants, and victims of new forms of slavery. He quotes Pope Francis in saying that we should allow ourselves to be evangelised by the poor, with whom we share our history.

I just hope the Irish churches, indeed, all people of good will, will read these words of Pope Leo. On Friday the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally referred to Pope Leo’s words and is clearly on the same page as he.

The sentiments of Sarah Mullally and Leo are a far cry from anything we hear from the lips of the US president and tyrants around the world. 

If those young children on their scooters felt they were valued and were treated with dignity, I can assure you they’d soon take off the hoodies and park the scooters.