Fr Alan Hilliard Staff Reporter
A ‘me first’ mentality lies at the range of social ills, including a reported rise in racist incidents, a leading priest-campaigner on immigration has said.
Describing racism as an side-effect of an ‘every man for himself’ approach to society, Fr Alan Hilliard told The Irish Catholic, “Whether we like it or not, our society is becoming a sum of individuals, where people are less prepared to incorporate others into the vision of life, and that is signified by things like racism.”
Fr Hilliard pointed to Pope Francis’ description of modern society as “an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose”, and said “We’re moving into a society we’re thought to look out for ourselves.”
“The way our society is going people are forced to think of themselves – it’s not providing the networks for people like in the past, so that’s the way people have to become to survive for themselves and the people they love,” he continued.
Fr Hilliard’s comments came as ENAR (European Network Against Racism) Ireland published a report to coincide with the International Day Against Racism which revealed that the monitoring group had received 245 reports of racist incidents in the second half of last year, an increase of a third on the previous six months.