Andrew Wildes, Gleaner Writer

"We are tired! We are tired of this violence! We are tired of this monster called crime. We want our boys to be safe. We want our girls to be safe. We want our children to be safe. There is too much wailing and lamentation in the land. It is like Rachel weeping for her children, wanting to be comforted no more."

The passionate words of the Reverend Father Kingsley Asphall had a most chilling effect as they rang out on a most somber Saturday morning at the St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Patrick City, Kingston. Asphall was delivering the homily at the thanksgiving service of 18-year-old Immaculate Conception High Head Girl, Pia Phillips, whose tragic death plunged the nation into deep grief two weeks ago.

With Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Minister of Finance Audley Shaw, and Minister of Education Andrew Holness sitting in the front row of the church, and hundreds of other mourners gathered in and around, Asphall warned of the desperate need to curb and eradicate what he termed the 'culture of death'.

"Jamaica is confronted by alarming signs of the culture of death, which poses a serious threat to our future," he said.

"Too many Jamaicans have become despicable barbarians with cold, callous hearts, which is a far cry from our innate Jamaican values and way of life." He paused.

"The question remains, however, when and how did we come to this point?"

"Boy, we allow it," one man standing outside the church muttered in reply.

A culture of love and life is what is most desperately needed, according to the reverend. As he continued, he spoke directly to the congregation and, at one point, to Holness, on steps he suggested were needed to transform Jamaica's deadly culture.