“Today we need a real crusade against poverty and a real revolutionary campaign to fight poverty,” said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin this week in Dublin.

“At various stages in my life I have listened to calls for new crusades to address social and cultural issues within Irish society.   Over the last 10 to 15 years a situation has emerged which few would have imagined and in a certain sense few have fully adverted to.

“The extent of homelessness and hunger in today’s Dublin is creating a divided society of which no one can be proud.  A child who has to grow up without a proper home and who misses out on basic nutrition brings disadvantage with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.

“More and more elderly who have contributed so much to building our prosperous and successful Ireland find themselves facing new insecurity and loneliness in the latter years of their lives,” he said.

There is a “need to provoke broad engagement within society”, he said, adding that “we need a new sense of common purpose and participatory society”.

“Care for others requires more than policy and funding: it requires a true sense of community. The fight against poverty and exclusion must involve all of us.”

The archbishop was speaking at the launch of a photographic exhibition marking the 75th anniversary of Crosscare, the social support agency of Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese, at St Paul’s Church on Arran Quay.

For the full Irish Times report of Archbishop Martin’s call, click here.