By Sarah Mac Donald - 12 August, 2013
Photo: Courtesy RTE
The Church Ireland Bishop of Down & Dromore has condemned the weekend’s violence in Belfast.
Fifty-six PSNI officers and two civilians were hurt following loyalist protests against a republican parade to mark the anniversary of the introduction of internment in 1971. Seven people have been arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour.
Loyalists opposed to the parade blocked it for around four hours before the PSNI managed to push the protesters back using water cannon and firing plastic baton rounds.
Vehicles were set on fire and some shops were also damaged.
In a statement, the Rt Revd Harold Miller said there was “no basis” on which the violence could be justified.
“All are agreed on the right to peaceful protest, but our community now needs a period of restraint while we redouble our efforts to build a shared future,” the Bishop said.
Bishop Miller urged all parties not to create any more situations which will result in predictable conflict.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of the PSNI who find themselves dealing with these situations and particularly with those who have been injured,” he concluded.
Separately, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh has said Northern Ireland is “only ‘tiptoeing’ towards a shared and reconciled future.”
Speaking at St Oliver Plunkett Church in West Belfast for the Féile an Phobail celebrations on Sunday evening, Archbishop Eamon Martin said tensions remain about how to tackle sectarianism, and that there are pastoral problems about reaching out to ex-combatants at the same time as fostering healing for victims.
“Many victims of the Troubles still don’t know the full circumstances that led to the death or serious injury of their loved one. Few have been able to tell their stories, either as individuals or communities – there is a tendency to think ‘don’t go there’, leave the past behind, or indeed to engage in blaming and revisionism, creating a hierarchy of victimhood and not recognising the legitimacy of truth within different accounts,” the Archbishop said.
He acknowledged that Northern Ireland was “still a long way away from any shared story or understanding of the past” and that much had to be done to address the detrimental impact of the Troubles on the image of Northern Ireland.
The future Primate said everyone had a responsibility to help avoid a relapse into violence “especially in the most deprived areas across our communities where residents feel they have won little from the peace”.
He emphasised that Church leaders had a share of the responsibility to help heal the wounds of the past, restore confidence in the present, and build a harmonious future.
“I know that the so-called ‘institutional Churches’ have come in for some criticism for not doing enough. But I think we should not underestimate the witness which priests and other pastors on the ground gave to non-violence and the values of forgiveness, often holding communities back from the brink of retaliation and escalating violence – not to mention the power of prayer and the many vigils and public rallies for peace”, he said.
Referring to the work done towards a sustainable peace within the Churches, the Archbishop said many Church leaders made impassioned pleas for an end to violence and called on politicians to seek a just and peaceful solution.
“There were also individuals in the Churches, quietly engaged in the early movements towards peace, discouraging violence, harnessing help in brokering dialogue, coaxing key figures to the negotiating table.”
In their pastoral work on the ground many priests came into daily, and sometimes gruesome contact with the reality of the Troubles – being called in the aftermath of bombings or shootings to anoint the dead, pray with the wounded, break bad news to families that someone had been killed or injured, preach at funerals of those, young and old, who had lost their lives.
“During the Troubles priests sometimes felt caught in the middle, at times used and attacked by all sides, but they continued to visit homes, hospitals and prisons, administer the sacraments; their pastoral presence in the public square helped preserve normality in the midst of potential chaos,” Dr Martin said.
“The priest or minister was often the person of hope, and consolation – for me, ministering as a priest in Derry at this time gave me a strong sense of my own vocation.”
Archbishop Martin underlined that he believes the Churches “can still play a significant role in helping to build bridges and re-define ourselves.”
He cited the 2007 Eames-Bradley Consultative Group on the Past which concluded that ‘The past should be dealt with in a manner which enables society to become more defined by its desire for true and lasting reconciliation rather than by division and mistrust.”
“In order to do this, we in the various Christian traditions might look together to the Word of God and find there shared Gospel values like the dignity of every human being, respect for all human life, conversion, repentance, forgiveness,” he said.
“Through the Word of God we might hear each others stories and explore each other’s hurts; we might begin to describe what a shared future looks like and talk about what has to be done before true forgiveness and reconciliation can happen.”
