Fr Jim Cogley
Loneliness is undoubtedly one of the great cancers of our age that just eats into the bones. More and more people find themselves living on their own, often without any awareness of who might be living next door. Many families exist in isolation behind locked gates and with no connection to their wider community. The sense of belonging and being part of a parish community is fast breaking down except in more rural areas. Houses of hospitality, with an open door policy, where people at a loss could reconnect, are few and far between. Many say they would need to make an appointment with a neighbor before dropping in. Even doing pastoral visitation it has become increasingly difficult to find anyone at home. All of this has been a growing trend in society for a long time. Doctors surgeries were filled with patients presenting many symptoms that masqueraded the deeper reality of what they could not say, and which could not be medicated, that they were feeling just plain lonely and the pain was unbearable.
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