A body of the Catholic bishops has highlighted the economy, marriage, and the right to life as key issues in Friday’s general election.

In a separate statement, Galway’s Bishop Martin Drennan has urged voters to study the position of the various parties regarding the right to life and denominational schools.

In a document released yesterday entitled From Crisis to Hope: Working to Achieve the Common Good, the Bishops’ Council for Justice and Peace stressed “the importance of supporting, protecting and strengthening the family based on marriage between a man and a woman as well as promoting human life at all its stages”.

Most of the document focuses on the “devastating impact of the financial crisis on individuals and families throughout Ireland”.

It notes that “real cost of the crisis cannot be expressed in figures alone, without reference to the impact, on a human level, on those who have lost their jobs, their life savings and even their homes”.

It adds that that the crisis affects the fabric of family and social lives.

“It can be an extremely difficult time for parents, many of whom are attempting to provide for all the needs of their children in changed economic circumstances.

“As a result of mounting economic pressures many parents may be ‘time poor’ as well as materially poor and this can have a negative mpact on child-parent relationships,” the document says.

It says that the family unit is central to Irish society and calls for “adequate analysis of the impact of social and economic policies, to ensure that they contribute to the protection and strengthening of family life, rather than causing fragmentation”.

The document also points out that, for Catholics, the protection of the right to life of the unborn “constitutes a non-negotiable element of fostering the common good. Abortion is the denial of that inalienable right”.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Galway, Dr Martin Drennan, also issued a statement reminding Catholic voters that the future of Catholic schools was an important issue in the upcoming election.

While Bishop Drennan accepted that economic issues were dominating the election debate, he said that voters needed to be aware of candidates’ policies “on the future of Catholic schools in Ireland”.

Voters, he said, should ask whether election candidates respected “the wishes of the Catholic people of Ireland regarding how they believe their children ought to be educated”.

He also urged voters “to be aware of the candidate’s policy on Life issues” and whether candidates respected “the sanctity of all forms of human life from conception to death”.