Podium: Immoral trade in death and destruction

OUR OWN words, no matter how carefully we choose them or how sincerely meant they are, are inadequate in the face of grief which we all feel. This grief is felt most intensely of all by the Barker, the Doherty and the McLaughlin families. This is a grief which is shared by a whole community, not just of Buncrana, but all of Ireland and beyond. I wish to express my deepest sympathy to all of you, most of all to Victor and Donna Marie, Michael and Bernie, John and Patricia, to the extended families, to our Spanish friends, especially the Baselga and the Ramos families, and to all the people of Buncrana.

Our hope is that even in your intense grief you will feel supported and strengthened in this personal and family tragedy by the prayerful support of the whole diocesan family and the many others who are joining in prayer with you.

The Omagh bombing has been a senseless and brutal atrocity. It has left a trail of death and destruction, the fall-out of which will be felt for a long time. That is already evident in the four hospitals. One depressing and tragic aspect of the Omagh bombing has been the number of children who either have lost their lives or have been orphaned. At this very moment, Bishop Daly is in Dunamana presiding at a requiem mass for 21- month-old Breda Devine who was killed. Breda's mother is critically ill in a Belfast hospital. Bishop Lagan is in Omagh at the funeral mass for Adrian Gallagher and later today in Drumquin at the funeral Mass for Philomena Skelton who leaves a husband, three young daughters and a son. There will be three further funerals in Omagh tomorrow. May the consoling hand of the Risen Christ touch all who are bereaved today and may that hand also bring healing to all who are wounded and in pain.

"Peace be with you" were the words of Jesus to his Apostles and followers. They are his words to us today, words rich and overflowing with love, with caring, with consolation, with hope, with help - all he asks of us is that we trust him. "Do not be afraid," Jesus said. Our fear, our anguish, our heartbreak today, intense and profound as they are, can and will be eased by Jesus who himself experienced pain, mutilation and death, and who alone can bring real consolation and healing.

This is a pastoral occasion and I want to keep it that way by avoiding any political comment. That may be for another time and place. But one last thing I want to say is to ask you in your charity to pray for the grace of repentance for all of those who were responsible for this atrocity. Pray for those that ordered the making of the bomb, for those who constructed it, for those who transported it and for all who were in any way participants in procuring this infamous instrument of death and destruction. They all stand guilty before Almighty God, they have done a great wrong and committed a grave sin.

I want them to hear this call - a call made more out of pastoral concern and charity than anger. I ask them to repent, to resolve to give up their immoral trade in destruction and death, not temporarily or conditionally, but permanently and to seek forgiveness. It is necessary they do so, otherwise their eventual destination for eternity will not be where James, Oran, Sean, Fernando and Rocio are today.

To all who engage in acts of violence which have the capacity to cause serious injury or death, I say to you as Bishop of this diocese on this important occasion: your intentions are wrong, your deeds are sinful. Repent while you have time. When you stand before the judgement seat of God, do not say that you have not been warned. I pray for your conversion in the way of Christ's peace. Unless you repent, no ideological or political considerations will even begin to exonerate [you] from the great sin against God, against humanity and against this community of which you now stand guilty.

I have every confidence that the public reaction which the atrocious murders in Omagh generated, which is so universally and so compellingly stated by people of all ages at home and abroad, will mark the crossing of the Rubicon in modern Irish history.

The people have spoken and will continue to speak. The people must just not be heard, but listened to. The new Northern Ireland Assembly presents the best and the only way forward. May it prosper. May you, Mr Trimble, and your colleagues in the assembly have the wisdom and the courage you need to serve the interests of peace for all our people. The young people whose funeral we celebrate today, and their deceased and injured colleagues, may well in time be recognised as our newest and most effective victims for peace.