Modern Society Has ‘Destroyed’ Family Bonds And Community Life, Says Former Archbishop
by Harry Farley, Christian Today:
He said respect for older people had declined because people were no longer taught the 10 Commandments.
Carey, a controversial proponent of assisted suicide, said the fifth commandment – “honour your father and mother” – once meant communities believed in “primacy of the elderly”.
He told the conference in Westminster hosted by think-tank the International Longevity Centre:”I remember growing up as a boy in the East End of London, in a cockney family, the close-knit communities that marked working class culture. There was a remarkable symbiosis between the different ages. Life revolved around the older generation with my mother’s mother as the matriarch at the centre of the family.
“Now perhaps there still exists that pattern of family life in some parts of northern England and maybe in some of the newer communities, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, that are springing up around us. But in the main strong community life has been hollowed out by the car, by younger people seeking work elsewhere, by job opportunities and so on. Family cohesiveness has been destroyed as a result.
“Of course I don’t want to sentimentalise or romanticise a long-ago age when communities were more stable.”
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