The bishop of San Sebastian has called on people to stop being passive and silent in the face of a terrorist campaign by the armed separatist group, Eta. Bishop Juan María Uriarte said society should be more active in the search for peace, writes Graham Keeley.

In a homily in Oñati in the Basque country last Sunday, the bishop said people have three tasks: "Alleviate the multiple suffering which many people have undergone for this inhumane confrontation, call publicly for peace, and denounce the return of Eta to the armed struggle."

The armed group killed two Ecuadorian men in a bomb attack on Madrid's Barajas Airport last December. Eta, which has been blamed for the deaths of more than 800 people during a 39-year battle for an independent Basque region, abandoned its latest truce in June.

Bishop Uriarte called on everyone to put the fight for peace "above party political interests and mutual rivalries". He said the Catholic Church had a duty to defend peace and work for reconciliation. Bishop Uriarte helped to mediate between Eta and the administration of then Prime Minister José María Aznar in 1999, but the talks failed.

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