BELFAST, Northern Ireland, APRIL 14, 2011 (Zenit.org).- With a view toward the upcoming May 5 elections in Northern Ireland, the bishops are urging voters to consider poverty issues, especially in regards to children.
Today in Belfast the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs (NICCOSA), a sub-committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, organized a pre-assembly election event on the theme «From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good.»
The event focused on a document with the same title released in February by the bishops’ conference.
In an address at the event, Bishop Noël Treanor of Down and Connor, chair of the conference’s Commission for Social and International Affairs, stated, «As Northern Ireland emerges from the dissonance of violent conflict, the distressing legacy of human, social and economic fragility and need looms ever larger and cries out for concerted and strategic response on the part of those we elect to our political institutions.»
He acknowledged that «the dramatic events in the international banking system in recent years have had profound consequences for both individuals and national economies.»
The prelate continued: «Northern Ireland is a unique interface in this global crisis.
«It is has to respond to dramatic cuts to public spending over which it has no effective control arising from the economic situation in the United Kingdom.»
Local partnerships
He urged, «It is important that the next assembly recognizes the importance of addressing many of the most urgent social needs of our society on the basis of partnership with local communities and all the agents of social capital that contribute to the well-being and quality of life of those communities.»
«This is perhaps nowhere more urgent than in the area of childhood poverty,» the bishop asserted.
He pointed out that Northern Ireland has «the highest levels of both relative and absolute childhood poverty of all the regions in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.»
Furthermore, Bishop Treanor said, «after some initial success in reducing the percentage of children living in absolute poverty in the period from 2000 to 2005, the statistics point to an increase in the levels of absolute poverty among children in Northern Ireland in the past three years.»
«This is a terrible indictment on our social and economic priorities as a society and on the determination of our politicians and others to address this issue,» he asserted.
The prelate continued: «Over 100,000 children in Northern Ireland live in poverty.
«This is unacceptable. For every citizen the horror of this poverty deserves to be a key issue in determining which party and politician we vote for in the forthcoming election.»
Duty of justice
«For Christians,» he affirmed, «giving priority to this issue is a fundamental duty of justice arising directly from the Gospel imperative to give priority to our care for the ‘little ones’ of God.»
«The key objective behind all our decisions and actions as citizens, including how we use our vote, should be to build a society worthy of the human person,» Bishop Treanor stated.
He added: «Those who would seek to limit the role or scope of religious belief to the private sphere undermine the very principles of freedom, pluralism and democracy.
«Christians have a right and a duty to contribute to the cultural, economic, political and social life of the society to which they belong.
«They are called to be active citizens working for the common good through their participation in all that contributes to the integral development of society and the person.»
The prelate affirmed that «this includes the duty to weigh up the choices that confront society in an election and to choose those candidates or parties who most uphold the dignity of every person, from conception to natural death, and the integral development of society by building up the common good.»
He noted that «all Christians have a serious duty to vote in the forthcoming assembly elections and to use that vote in accordance with their Christian conscience and the values that will enhance the common good of our society.»
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