IT IS good will that is needed for peace in Ireland, rather than just another political initiative.
Speaking to the Irish Bishops' Commission for Immigrants in Dublin last week, Cardinal Hume said: "New political and constitutional arrangements could, in theory, be devised and set up successfully. What is lacking, however, is a concerted will on all sides to put them into effect."
It was for Catholics in Ireland and England to create an atmosphere in which change is possible, "by helping to lessen, the atmosphere of mistrust, revenge and hatred, by creating the will to reconciliation and political settlement." Cardinal Hume renewed the appeal he made in Westminster Cathedral on St Patrick's Day in asking for "a mission of unconditional love," to reconcile the world to God and human beings to each other.
The Cardinal repeated his conviction that affairs had reached a watershed. "We are gazing even now into the abyss," he said.
Terrorism was not the way; there had to be an end to war and unjust exercise of power, he said. But there was a danger in dialogue. If there is no true conversion of heart, dialogue can be rendered sterile and the result is "an even greater frustration and loss of hope."