We live in a world where poverty and the gap between rich and poor had reached "obscene levels", Bishop Donal McKeown said in Knock yesterday.
The auxiliary bishop of Down and Connor continued: "I don't just mean the increasingly vulgar, ostentatious displays of wealth that we find in Ireland where, despite the creation of great wealth over the last 10 years, Government figures suggest that one in four children lives at risk of poverty."
Dr McKeown referred to "the obscene situation where the average EU subsidy per cow is about €670, while the average Ethiopian's annual income is one-eighth of that; 500 children die every hour from hunger-related and other preventable diseases - while one in seven Irish people are officially classified as obese."
There was "the appalling truth that in 2004 the world spent $1 trillion on arms and a mere one twelfth of that ($78.6 billion) on aid", he said.
It was "a situation that cries out to heaven. People of faith need to call out everywhere, so that governments will be at the service of people, rather than just at the service of powerful interest groups."
Dr McKeown asserted: "We are right to protest at the threat to the unborn child. We need to be equally strident about the appalling deaths of five million born children each year.
There is more than enough for everyone's need in the world, but not for everyone's greed. But a huge range of choices tends mainly to benefit those with social capital - and leaves the increasing number of relatively poor with few choices about housing, food or education."