By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

“There is a distinction that should be made about the nationalist movement in Northern Ireland,” says Bishop Mark Hurley of Santa Rosa Diocese in California.

“The British government and British embassies around the country don’t make the distinction and I believe they should.”

“However,” goes on the bishop, who recently paid a visit to Ireland, “I would like to make the distinction here and now and it is this. Over there you have the violent element and the non-violent element. It was the same here in this country during the civil rights struggle in the sixties. We had the Huey Newtons who wanted to burn everything in sight and we had the Martin Luther Kings who wanted peaceful change.”

“The same situation exists today in Northern Ireland. The British are not saying it in this country, but I believe it must be revealed. You cannot just point your finger at the IRA and say they are the problem and if they were eliminated the solution would be found. That is not true. The IRA is part of the problem, but the pressures on the people from many areas are enormous. And the discrimination against Catholics is a crime.”

Bishop Hurley went to Northern Ireland last October with Archbishop John O’Connor of New York, Bishop James Malone of Youngstown, Ohio and Bishop J. Francis Stafford of Memphis. Their object was to view at first hand the conditions and report back to the Bishops of the United States. The report has now been completed and will be released next week.

“We were received by 39 different groups,” says Bishop Hurley, “and most were very cordial and helpful to us. We did not merely look at the day to day violence, which is a tense situation. We looked at the community needs as a whole -- both North and South of the border.”

Bishop Hurley was the only bishop in the group who had visited the troubled area previously. The scene, he found, had changed over the years. Some of the changes were for the best; others were not.

“I found that housing for the poor and the working class had improved greatly,” said the bishop. “I was glad to see it. However, I must say that other conditions had worsened. It was sad.”

Bishop Hurley found unemployment was like a fungus on the population, but it was especially burdensome to the Catholic minority because discriminations still persist. Also, Northern Ireland continues to be a police state and that atmosphere is keenly felt.

“However,” says the California bishop, “the worst condition of all is the imposition of ‘remand’ on the population. This means anyone can be arrested and held without charge or trial for up to two years. We spoke to the highest officials in the government about this. They admitted it is there and defend it only by pointing out that it is there in other societies too.”

Bishop Hurley and his brother bishops had great admiration for groups of Protestant ministers who are courageously speaking out for justice. “We need to say that it is not just the IRA and men of violence on one side and the rest of the population on the other. That is not so. Many groups of all religions are saying to the British government that justice is not there. And peace will come until there is justice.”

The bishops made a point of protesting to the authorities about the strip searching of the prisoners at the women’s prison in Armagh. “These female prisoners,” said the bishop, “even though they are in custody at all times and never without surveillance of the authorities are strip searched many times each day without proper protection or privacy.”

During their tour the bishops went south of the border into the Irish Republic. There they found that the government had placed their hopes for change on the New Ireland Forum, a document presented to the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher outlining future hopes for Ireland and moves toward unity.

“I met no one north of the border,” said Bishop Hurley, “who gave the Forum any chance. An expert put it to me this way, ‘It is a non-event.’”

And so it proved to be. The Forum was given an immediate sentence of death by Mrs. Thatcher with the one word “out.” Many hope that perhaps future leaders of Ireland and England will use the ideas of the Forum to move toward a solution, but, as of now, the promise it once gave is not there.

The report of the bishops’ findings will appear as the world celebrates the feast of St. Patrick. Perhaps it should be released after the feast since it will give little hope of peace or reconciliation.

Bishop Hurley and his brother bishops left no one out in an effort to hear all sides. “We talked to Unionists, Nationalists and panels of both. We were there for five days and it was brief. We left feeling helpless, wishing for less violence in the community, less talk of violence and more talk about justice.”

Asked if any one solution would bring about peace even in the distant future, Bishop Mark Hurley replied, “Well, the British will have to go one day, but even then the difficulties for Ireland will be many.”