The ability to discern good and evil [1] is in dire need of being cultivated or we risk losing our way as a people, warned Archbishop Eamon Martin.
In a stark appeal at the summit of Croagh Patrick on Reek Sunday, the Archbishop of Armagh said being able to distinguish good and evil is more important than ever “when the primacy of individual choice – including absolute choice over our bodies and over creation – is sometimes held up as the gold standard of a ‘modern’ society freed from the so-called ‘shackles of the past’.”
“But to present choice as unlimited, unencumbered by talk of ‘good and bad’ choice, of ‘right and wrong’ choice, is a recipe for disappointment, for a sense of personal failure and even despair”.
He added: “To worship unlimited choice is to worship a false god. Far from nourishing a happier life and a more free and rounded society, uninhibited choice is overwhelming, and can impact negatively on spiritual, physical and mental health and well-being, especially that of our young people. At its worst the concept of unlimited choice without consequence becomes a tyranny which threatens the dignity of the human person as a unity of body and soul; it can destroy life, create confusion and contribute to a culture of death where the destruction of innocent and vulnerable human life – at its very beginning or near its end – is presented as a matter of legitimate individual choice”.