Appeal for disclosure on graves of victims

The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning, has called on all those involved in paramilitary violence…

The head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, Cardinal Thomas Winning, has called on all those involved in paramilitary violence in the North to disclose the whereabouts of "the disappeared", the victims lying in unmarked graves.

At a remembrance service for the victims of the Omagh bombing in Glasgow on Friday, Cardinal Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow, also appealed to those responsible for the bomb to take stock of what they had done and ask themselves if it had been worth it. "Many families in the last three decades have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists, but are unable to give them a proper burial because their bodies were dumped in unmarked, unknown, lonely, and unvisited graves," Cardinal Winning said. "Decency and compassion demand that those families are now afforded the consolation of knowing where their relatives lie so that they can give them a decent Christian burial."

Asking the bombers to consider the effects of their actions, the cardinal said: "I ask them to look into the eyes of the young husband who lost his wife, his little daughter and his unborn twin girls. Eyes glazed over with tears and maddening grief.

"I ask them to look into the eyes of the teenage girl they have maimed so effectively by blowing off her legs. Eyes filled with tears of worry, anger and pain. I ask them to look at the young bride of three weeks, half of her face and a hand blown off.

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"And I ask those men of violence to ask themselves . . was it worth it? No cause in the world can justify such unspeakable evil."

He said he hoped Omagh would be the last atrocity, and pleaded for the opportunity to give peace a chance. Repeating the words first spoken by Pope John Paul during his visit to Ireland in 1979, the cardinal added: "On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and return to the ways of peace."