Churchmen blast IRA for murder

by Angus Macdonald
CATHOLIC Church leaders have condemned the IRA for the "senseless, brutal murder" of the Warrington Mother's Day bomb, which killed a Catholic boy.
The twin blasts in a crowded shopping centre which killed three-year-old Johnathan Ball. and left more than 50 people injured this week have stunned the community and outraged Catholics in the town.
Cardinal Hume said this week: "Such actions by the IRA are utterly inhuman and barbaric, and are to be totally condemned." The cardinal. who has had a long association with Warrington through the Benedictine parishes in the area, added: "The people of Warrington are very much in my prayers at this difficult and distressing time."
Archbishop Derek Worlock of Liverpool, who joined the Archbishop of Canterbury in a pastoral visit to the grieving town earlier this week, said: 'The perpetrators of this outrage stand condemned by all right-minded persons of senseless. brutal murder." •
Bishop David Konstant of Leeds said: "If any good can follow this evil act. it might be that those who support these inhuman killers will finally realise that their bloody work deserves nothing but total condemnation.
Bishop Konstant called for "love and prayers" for the victims of the outrage. "My first response is an aching sympathy for the victims. We must support them in every possible way."
The funeral of three-year-old Johnathan, who died instantly when he took the full impact of the second blast, is taking place today at St Wilfred's Anglican Church in Grappenhall.
He was the only son of Will and Marie Ball, both Catholics who Jived in the parish of St Augustine of Canterbury and the English Martyrs in Latchford. Both had previous marriages, and chose to christen Johnathan in the local Anglican Church.
Although at time of going to press, the Catholic Herald understands that either Bishop John Jukes of Shrewsbury' or Archbishop Worlock will take part in the service.
Local parish priest Fr Peter Robertson, who visited the Ball family this week to offer comfort and prayers, said: "We are absolutely horrified that this has taken place in our community. We held a vigil of prayer for peace here only hours before the blast."
Fr Christopher Cunningham, parish priest of St Alban's in Warrington, was called to Warrington General Hospital on the afternoon of the bombing, and was present when many of the injured arrived. "Obviously people were very shaken, very shocked. We spent a lot of time amongst those with minor casualties, helping them to overcome their fear and anxiety particularly about other friends or family who may have been injured."
Fr Cunningham said that fears of a backlash against the Irish community in Warrington wre largely unfounded. "A lot of Irish people here are openly in tears ashamed and embarrassed that it should be someone from their community that is responsible for this. 1 had to tell them from the pulpit that they shouldn't be that it was a handful of mad people who
did this and nothing to do with them,"
said Fr Cunningham.
Earlier this week, Archbishop Worlock, together with the other presidents of the Merseyside ecumenical assembly. issued a joint statement aimed at calming tensions. "We admire greatly the courage, steadfastness and commitment to reconciliation which we see among so many Irish Christians in the face of continuing violence," they said.