Meaningful reconciliation” in Northern Ireland “is the unfinished work of peace”, the Catholic and Church of Ireland primates said in their Easter message as they appealed to everyone to play their part in “building a reconciled society”.
Amid concerns over the future of power-sharing in Northern Ireland following the shock resignation of DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin and Archbishop John McDowell of the Church of Ireland said, “Within our own broken society, the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement has held out the challenging message of reconciliation. However, it will only be put into effect if we commit ourselves to the ministry of reconciliation.”
The two church leaders said that everyone has a role to play from governments in the framing of policy and legislation and in the rebuilding of relationships at the highest levels; to civic society; to individual citizens “in remembering that great societies are those which take into account not only their debt to the past, but also their obligations to those yet to be born.”
Meanwhile, in Sligo, Bishop Kevin Doran said many in recent years have come to feel that “our faith is being undermined”.
However, he said this was only part of the truth and perhaps faith was not “as strongly rooted as we thought it was” and this was more apparent now that some of the institutional supports have been taken away.
It was time to look again at what motivates us, the Bishop of Elphin said and underlined, “Our faith does not, in the final analysis, depend on public policy, nor is it determined by social media.”
In Dublin, Archbishop Dermot Farrell expressed concern over the plight of asylum seekers and refugees “when we abandon to their fate those who lack even the most basic requirements for human dignity”.
He criticised the distinction made between different categories of people living on the streets based on “legal niceties rather than basic humanity.”
The Resurrection, Bishop Donal McKeown said in Derry, is the source of the “ultimate liberation theology” and calls out abuses of power. “No wonder it is unwelcome in some quarters for it is a liberating message for those who labour and are overburdened.”
In a culture that struggles with the reality of evil, the narrative says that the individual is entitled to choose and that no-one’s choice should be judged.
“And yet, we risk drowning in a wave of laws that try to control human behaviour in a context where we are told that there Is neither right nor wrong, just what is legal and what is illegal,” the Bishop of Derry said.
However, the Resurrection of Jesus proclaims that virtue and faithfulness will bear fruit in God's own good time, that injustice and arrogance will not have the last laugh.
“Easter is God's vindication of Christ's message that the gentle, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for justice will be victorious,” he underlined.
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