People have not become less compassionate in the State, but more powerless, according to Father Peter McVerry of the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice.
He said social, economic and political structures did not encourage people to be more compassionate because they could not see a positive benefit from their sacrifices. The Jesuit priest was speaking in St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, yesterday where he gave the millennium address.
Father McVerry warned that unless something was done about the widening gap between rich and poor in the State, there would be major conflict.
He said the "extraordinary" wealth in the State was increasingly being protected by people who saw it as their security. They saw less fortunate people as a threat to their wealth, he said.
"Without a fundamental change in the economic, social and political structures that govern our lives, long before [the year] 3000 there may be no life whatsoever left on Earth," Father McVerry warned.
He said two issues stood out in the history of the last thousand years: increasing wealth and the way technology was making the world smaller every day. But, he said, while some people enjoyed a choice of 50 television stations, designer clothes and high-class restaurants, others "have to make basic choices on which child to feed today or where to sleep tonight".
Father McVerry said the new-found wealth in the State was exclusive, as it was not possible to provide the same very high standard of living for all. Because of this, he said, people were determined to hold on to their wealth and to exclude those who did not have it. This inequity would lead to more and more conflict, he warned.
And while technology was bringing people closer every day, in some ways they were never further apart. "We do not want to get involved in the lives of others," he said. "We do not allow the people of Africa access to our markets."
Father McVerry said he frequently received calls from people wondering what they could do about a man or woman who had been sleeping in a doorway. "I don't know what to say," he said. While people could write to the relevant minister in Government, he said, the letter would probably never be seen by the minister.
People would be more compassionate if they could see that it was making a difference. "I don't believe that we just want to have more and more while others suffer," he said.
"Decisions on our lives and structures are made by a remote minister in a remote department. We need a new structure of democracy that will allow all people to have their say."
Despite this, Father McVerry said, the past millennium had produced some hopeful signs. He highlighted the work of trade unions, the Green movement and the Jubilee campaign for cancelling Third World debt as examples of compassionate deeds getting results.
