“I condemn in the strongest terms these abominable acts of terrorism which, apart from desecrating human life, seriously endanger the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland,” Benedict said in his weekly general audience at St Peter’s Basilica. “I ask the Lord that no one will again give in to the horrendous temptation of violence.”
In the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast on March 11 the heads of the four main churches in Ireland — Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady, Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper, Methodist president the Rev. Alan Ferguson and Presbyterian moderator the Rev. Donald Patton — said the killers of two soldiers must not be allowed to succeed.
The church leaders on March 11 joined labor unions, workers and residents in Belfast from Catholic and Protestant communities to protest at the killings that triggered fears of a resurgence of the type of violence that had plagued Northern Ireland, which is a part of the United Kingdom, but is on the island of Ireland.
“The brutal murder of two soldiers and injuring of others including civilians at Massereene is a shocking development which is an attack on our whole community,” said the church leaders. “It takes us back to events which we thought we had left in the past and is a dangerous attempt to destabilize the peace process.”
The police officer was shot dead on 9 March as he and a colleague attended a call in Craigavon, a town that is divided between Catholics and Protestants, near Belfast. The two soldiers had been killed two days earlier in Antrim.
Catholic and Church of Ireland bishops from the Craigavon area had said, “The cold-blooded murder of a policeman who has served the community for 20 years, while doing his duty in Craigavon last night, was a morally bankrupt act.”
The attacks were the most severe in more than 10 years, since a pact known as the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought to a halt to many years of conflict and tension between Catholic and Protestant communities.
