The Messenger - October 2008 - Editorial October 08
By - 01 October 2008
Dividends: Father Peter McVerry S.J. has become well known over the last thirty years for his work with homeless boys in Dublin. Intrigued by the title of his new book - Jesus: Social Revolutionary? - I attended its launch. Peter’s work is chronically in need of funds, but he seemed more amused than anything else as he recounted his efforts to get financial aid from the City to continue providing some accommodation for the homeless.
First they wanted his Mission Statement, and then they wanted his Strategic Plan, and they wanted a Sustainability Plan. Peter laughed. It is little short of miraculous that his work has survived so far, and where the demands and resources are so unpredictable, talk of sustainability can be painful. The strategic plan is to keep going, to keep addressing the plight of the young homeless men on the streets of Dublin. Maybe if he didn’t laugh he would cry.
Anyone who works with modern organizations, be they schools or agencies working for Third World development, is familiar with mission statements and strategic plans. Wherever money is involved, whether public or charitable, there must be accountability. And that is as it should be, but in the secular world there is another agenda: in order that the taxpayer gets value for money, the money given to schools for example, must ensure that the knowledge economy gets qualified people at the end of the educational process. That is why a mission statement is necessary; that is why a strategic plan is necessary.
A system entailing finance is not tolerant of failure. It turns its face away and simply rejects it. Are there any more rejected in our society than the homeless? Because Christ took a different view of the rejected in his society - the blind, the lame, the lepers who were denied admission to the Temple - Peter McVerry calls him a social revolutionary. In imitation of Christ, Peter McVerry is the human face of the Church, trying to give these people some sense of self-worth, some acceptance, space, warmth, choice in their life.
That has been the role of the Church down through the ages. It has looked to the sick, the orphaned and the unwanted. Always it was under-funded. They were not likely to return a dividend on what was invested in them. What made Christ a social revolutionary and those who have followed him, is the value they place on the people society so easily forgets or does not even want to know, those who find it difficult to cope with the modern world.