Economic growth is too often taken as the defining factor of progress despite its failure to contain social problems such as alcohol and drugs, the Archbishop of Dublin has said.
Speaking at the ordination of three priests to the Dublin diocese yesterday, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the failure of economic success on its own to address our human needs could be seen "in its most obvious light when Ireland can be top in Europe in a wide range of economic indicators and yet can be very much on the lower level of certain social indicators".
It manifested itself notably in society's high rate of youth suicide and in "the emptiness of a culture of drugs and drink".
Because contemporary society is so influenced by the accumulation of wealth and power, pleasure and gratification, the archbishop said, "there are times when we have to admit that despite the goodness of so many, much of our world view is defined by values which are not compatible with the message of Christ".
While the church had to engage with people's aspirations it could never totally identify itself with those prevailing cultural realities. "The church must be otherworldly. It must distance itself from the contemporary world."
It was because the church had failed to maintain this distance - "because it has at times failed to free itself from the bonds of power seeking" - that it had lost credibility.
The ordinations were the first since 2004. Dubliners Pádraig O'Sullivan and Robert Coclough and Joseph McDonald from Belfast - all of whom are in their 40s - were ordained in St Mary's Pro Cathedral in Dublin.
The three men were educated at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, where another 67 men are currently studying.
Eight more are due to be ordained later this year.
Pádraig O'Sullivan from Artane worked as a nurse for 20 years and served as a nurse tutor in Drogheda, while Robert Coclough from Dundrum has a background in engineering and did pastoral work in Arbor Hill Prison and in the US.
Joseph McDonald joined the Christian Brothers after leaving school and worked as a teacher until he joined the seminary in Maynooth after his 40th birthday.