Irish archbishop calls for new culture to help Northern Ireland peace

Published: 2005-01-20

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- A new church culture is needed north and south of the Irish border to help the Northern Ireland peace process, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. In a homily at a Jan. 18 ecumenical service at St. Finian's Lutheran Church to help kick off the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the archbishop said that Christians in the Irish Republic have a responsibility to be active participants in the Northern Ireland peace process. "I am struck, since my return to Ireland, at a tendency to think that the peace process in Northern Ireland is something primarily of the churches in Northern Ireland, something that we look at, with support and prayers, encouragement and hope, but we look at from a distance," said the archbishop, who spent more than 25 years in the service of the Holy See in Rome and Geneva before returning to Ireland to become coadjutor archbishop of Dublin in 2003. "There is also a responsibility for Christian believers in the rest of Ireland to be active participants in ensuring the success of the peace process, never just sitting ... critically in our armchairs," he said.

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