Dublin: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin launches Who is my Neighbour?

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

On Friday at Veritas House, Lower Abbey St Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, launched the publication Who is My Neighbour? from the Irish Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (ICJSA). This book is based on the papers delivered at the conference of the same name, which was organised by the ICJSA, on 18 February 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), provided the subject for the 2008 conference where a range of contributors, representing different dimensions of Irish life, responded to the Encyclical and attempted to answer the outwardly simple, yet most perplexing question, 'Who is my neighbour?'.

Who Is My Neighbour? has been edited for the ICJSA by Rev Dr Eoin Cassidy, Head of the Philosophy Department at Mater Dei Institute, Dublin City University, and Chair of the ICJSA International sub-group. It contains a selection of papers delivered at the conference, together with additional contributions highlighting the relevance of the Encyclical in areas such as justice, human rights, and education.

Speaking at the launch Dr Eoin Cassidy described Pope Benedict's Encyclical as "extremely timely" in the context of the global financial crisis and the recent banking scandals: "In its proclamation of the mystery of God who is love and of the inseparability of the love of God and neighbour, this Encyclical provides for a vision of solidarity that alone is capable of engendering the type of society transformation demanded by the present crisis.

"Deus Caritas Est provides a much needed corrective to the excesses of capitalism. A culture animated by the principles of the Gospel as outlined in Deus Caritas Est has a unique contribution to make to the humanisation of contemporary culture. It has the potential to bring hope to a global world marked by the rootlessness of an individualist culture.

"By challenging the belief that people are subject to the market with the conviction that the market should be at the service of human beings, it also has the capability to create solidarity among peoples and to bring justice to a world too often marked by economic and social divisions."