P O S I T I O N
P A P E R S
EDITORIAL
As I write, Dublin and Donegal are under a Level 3 lockdown and there is talk of other coun�es having to follow suit soon. While these lockdowns are not as severe as the complete lockdown of last Spring, there are factors which make this �me around feel a li�le worse: we’re heading into Winter, not Summer, the financial damage is beginning to show as is the emo�onal toll of half a year of already spent with COVID. Furthermore the buoyant na�onal esprit de corps has faded to be replaced with an esprit of complaints and recrimina�ons. Civic life is shadowed by a slightly dystopian atmosphere, created by those omnipresent signs demanding masks and hand-washing, the convoluted one-way systems in public spaces, the pedestrians nervously stepping off paths to avoid on-coming pedestrians, and those heated overreac�ons to poor unfortunates who forget to don their masks on entering shops. In a recent general audience, Pope Francis (con�nuing his catechesis on the Church’s social teaching) suggested that the principle of subsidiarity has been lacking in interna�onal efforts to tackle COVID. The principle of subsidiarity is the (much neglected) principle that States should minimise their direct interven�on in the life of a society where subsidiary social bodies – such as families, small businesses, voluntary organisa�ons, churches, trade unions – exist to carry out that same func�on. These social bodies, says Pope Francis, should not be side-lined: “When a project is launched that directly or indirectly touches certain social groups, these groups cannot be le� out from par�cipa�ng … Let everyone speak! And this is how the principle of subsidiarity works. We cannot leave out the par�cipa�on of the people; their wisdom; the wisdom of the humbler groups cannot be set aside” (General Audience, 23 Sept 2020).
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