The poor in society have been shown "two fingers" by the Government through its recently-announced cut-backs in social welfare supports, Father Peter McVerry has said.
Speaking last night ahead of the launch of a book of his writings, the social campaigner said: "The Estimates were the most disgusting thing I have seen for many a year. They were really putting up two fingers to people living in the margins and saying we don't give an effing damn about you."
Later, Father McVerry told an audience, which gathered for the launch of The Meaning is in the Shadows, that working with young people for the past 20 years had profoundly challenged his values and "my understanding of right and wrong".
"They made me very angry", he said, because of the way society "simply does not care for them. When I lose my anger I will be of no use to them anymore."
Launching the book, Senator Brendan Ryan said its key message was: "It doesn't have to be like this . . . There is no predestination in either spiritual or political matters."
Describing it as "a profoundly challenging book", he noted countries with the same crime rate as the Republic had a quarter of the prison population, while others which had a higher population density "don't have our homeless problem".
The Meaning is in the Shadows by Father Peter McVerry SJ is published by Veritas, €14.95
