Irish church leaders urge more prayer for the Maze

AS THE crisis deepened this week over the hunger strikers in the Maze prison in Belfast, Cardinal Tomas 0 Fiaich pleaded with Mrs Thatcher to intervene personally.
In a telegram sent to the Prime Minister on Tuesday the cardinal said: "Having appealed to the hunger strikers to give up their fast, we appeal to you to intervene personally in the prison crisis which is now worsening every day. All sides here are desperate for a solution and• someone must take an initiative immediately to avert a tradedy".
The telegram was signed by Cardinal 0 Fiaich "on behalf of all the northern bishops".
Earlier in the week he had said that there was nothing more he could do to resolve the hunger strike except to pray. There are now 37 Republicans and six Loyalists on hunger strike: seven of them started it eight weeks ago.
The Cardinal, speaking at a Press conference at St Anne's Cathedral Belfast, along w ith leaders of the Church of Ireland and the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, said he shuddered to think what would happen it' one or more of the hunger strikers died.
He warned that there was already a great deal of tension in the community and a death could put the situation over the brink. This might even involve a return to the grave violence of 1972 and 1973.
The Cardinal hoped that tragedy would he averted before the week of prayer, for which the church leaders had called. begins on Sunday December 29, Asked about the prospect of a joint statement from the church leaders on the crisis the Cardinal said that Monday's Press conference had been the first meeting between them since Loyalist prisoners joined the hunger strike. But the church leaders did make it clear they would consider issuing such a statement. 'the). made a further plea that the hunger strike should be called off before it was too late. The first seven hunger strikers have already had 50 days without food.
When Cardinal 0 Fiaich was asked whether any new moves were contemplated after the talks with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Mr Humphrey Atkins, the Cardinal said: "Not at this precise moment."
Asked if he would be willing to mediate the Cardinal said he did not think mediation was the right word. He pointed out that Canon William Arlow of the Church of Ireland (one of the mediators at the so called Feakle Talks with the Provisional IRA) had already announced his willingness to act as a channel of communication.
The Cardinal hoped people would pray for the hunger strike to end. The Church of Ireland leader, Bishop Arthur Butler of Connor said that as churchmen they believed that prayer could and would change things.