W2E-006 Coalition - Conscience-2.txt
Conscience

THE COUNTLESS thousands of customers who flocked to Limerick stores on Sunday for the innocent enjoyment of an afternoon's shopping got a rude awakening on Monday when Archbishop Desmond Connell of Dublin pronounced on Radio 1's Morning Ireland against Sabbath trading.

In fairness, his remarks are directed not at shoppers but at shopkeepers. Stores that open on Sundays, he maintains, are primarily motivated not by a sense of social service but by profits. That is undoubtedly so.

And why not? Without profits, private businesses go bust and jobs are lost. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with profits.

Archbishop Connell implies, however, that once some stores open on Sundays, others feel they have no choice but to follow suit. But surely if people choose to go into business, they must accept the consequences of free and fair competition.

And what of the freedom of choice of the customer? No-one is dictating to anyone when to shop. Shops are open on Sundays in Limerick this Christmas purely by public demand. The proof lies in previous trading records for the festive season.

Moreover, sales assistants, far far from being oppressed by seven-day opening, are glad of the opportunity to earn extra cash for Christmas.

The central argument in the God and Mammon debate, however, must be the moral one: namely that Sabbath trading necessarily breaches the Third Commandment. This ignores the facts, namely that for many people Sunday shopping, far from being a chore, is a leisure activity, and that for others - such as families with two parents going out to work - it is a virtual necessity.

But the fundamental moral issue is not Sunday observance at all but freedom of conscience.
