Diocesan News19 Dec 08

Archbishop of Armagh's Christmas Message 2008

I am a grandfather. I acquired an additional three new granddaughters in the past six months. As a result, children have never been far from my mind this year. Thankfully all four of my granddaughters together with their respective mothers are thriving. But I saw a different side to infancy earlier this year when I visited the Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem. Along with the smiling faces of happy parents with healthy infants I saw a nursery for ‘foundling’ children abandoned at birth. One child I saw was desperately ill; the others were lively and well. What moved me particularly was that in that hospital there was and is 'room at the inn'.

The abandoned children of the city of Christ’s birth remind me of another reality. Whenever we cradle a new born baby we are holding a child who may, in the fullness of time, change the world. Nothing, then, is more important, more worthwhile, more socially and economically necessary than to cherish little children for all children of whatever ability are rich in unexplored promise. Strong, secure, loving families, wherein each member is loved and respected are the God-given ideal within which children may grow and fulfil their potential. It is therefore vital to create structures and conditions that support and encourage wholesome family life. Let’s get our priorities right: our first concern should be to nourish healthy family life.

But, of course, families of all kinds – including traditional families – may fall apart. Sometimes children are exploited, abused, neglected or unloved. When that happens society must step in. The news is full of tragic stories of how we fail our children. The massive recent publicity over the death of ‘Baby P’ aroused instincts of righteous indignation and the cry to apportion blame. The appalling statistics of child abuse and neglect revealed in a recent report in 'The Lancet', tell of the size of the problem confronting social workers and childcare professionals.  It is important to recognize that it was primarily the child’s parents and not simply social workers who failed ‘Baby P’. Ultimately, it was society’s failure – we all failed.

We shall never know what ‘Baby P’ might have given to the world for, unlike the Christ child of Bethlehem and the foundling children of that city two thousand years later, he did not have the Holy Family to rely upon. This Christmas, as we think of Christ’s Incarnation, let us celebrate and support family life where it seeks to build children up and encourage each other to cherish and respect the gift of new life.