The Constitution has proved “capable of guaranteeing rights and curbing power – including the power of the State”, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (pictured) has said.

In his homily for the annual Red Mass, which is held at the commencement of the year for the Irish courts, Archbishop Martin noted that the Constitution was “sometimes presented just as a fossilised child of its time”.

The Government plans to hold a convention beginning next Spring with a view to examining ways to revise the Constitution.

But he said that, within its limitations, it had proven to be “a document which was ably capable of guaranteeing rights and curbing power – including the power of the State – and has fostered a valuable culture of legal interpretation which has served the people of Ireland well”.

The Archbishop said that the Government’s proposed Constitutional Convention, “must be a moment of true discernment”.

He said: “Renewal does not always mean discontinuity. Tradition is not outdated each new day. True values are different to fashion, where the fashion of the day can tomorrow be quickly out of fashion. Values must be rooted somewhere. They must represent a constant in society and what society aspires to.”

Faith, he added, had a fundamental role in building truly pluralist societies. He noted that there was “a tendency to reduce the role of faith to the margins of society”.

Scandals in the Irish Church had damaged its message, he said, but despite this “we should remember that Christian faith and belief in Jesus Christ have their role and contribution to bring to reflection on the future of society,” he said.

He added: “Faith can open our horizons beyond just what we can attain on our own. Men and women of faith have shown how their faith can inspire them and their contribution to society. The fundamental role of faith for the building of societies which are truly pluralist should not be overlooked.”

Referring to the speech made last month by Pope Benedict to the German Parliament, he said efforts were being made “to recognise only positivism as a common culture and a common basis for law-making, reducing all the other insights and values of our culture to the level of subculture”.

The Archbishop said that what was needed in such difficult times was “a wise, enlightened and broad vision of juridical culture which asserts its legitimate independence from political power and influence and is governed not by the fashion of the day”.

There was a need for a “genuine sense of seeking the truth and respecting the dignity of each person, and a recognition of “how the individual belongs within a framework of human interaction, especially within the family, an institution to which a unique place is recognised in international juridical culture”.

He asked for “a discernment in the administration of justice which goes beyond the mere pragmatic and the positivistic”.