Sir, - Among the eight people found dead at Drinagh Business Park, Wexford, was a four-year-old child. His parents gave him into the care of relatives in the hope that he would have some chance of a better life in Britain.
It is hard to imagine the sheer desperation of that child's parents. They were prepared to be parted from him that he might have a future. The others who died were similarly attempting to grasp some opportunity of a life with dignity, a life devoid of misery, poverty and injustice.
Such is the plight, throughout the world, of countless millions of our brothers and sisters. And that is exactly what they are - our own flesh and blood, part of our human family. This immense tragedy on the threshold of Christmas challenges us, in a supposedly Christian country, to re-examine the core values of the Gospel.
On December 25th, we commemorate the coming among us of the One who says: "I was a stranger and you made Me welcome" (Matthew 25:36). He identifies Himself with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the outcast, the sick and the imprisoned.
Britain, Ireland and the entire Western world urgently need to recover Christ's vision of humanity. On RT╔'s Questions and Answers, a few days after the Wexford tragedy, some callers rang in to express the opinion that "we should look after our own first". The truth is that those whose bodies were discovered in Wexford are "our own".
The only hope for this world is when we can begin to look at our fellow human beings and see the colour of their skin, or their ethnic background, as part of the unique beauty of their being human with us.
This vision must begin with ourselves. All racism and supremacism of any form is an insult to the God who has no favourites. It is a potent and deadly poison and it is rampant in our society. It is the task of Christians and all people of goodwill to counteract every expression of hostility towards those who come to us in such dire need. - Yours, etc.,
Father Patrick McCafferty, Sacred Heart Parish, Belfast 14.