The Catholic primate Archbishop Seán Brady has called on "those who have power to do so" in the North to commit themselves "totally" to a shared and positive future "by putting in place a local powersharing Assembly which has full community support for the institutions of law and order".
Speaking in Belfast on Saturday, and in a clear reference to the November 24th deadline for agreement on devolved institutions in the North, he said and he hoped "that all those who can make this happen will consider carefully their responsibility to the greater good and the benefits of local accountability."
He also said that "where reasonable assurances have been given that there is a commitment to support just and representative institutions of law and order, and where this is confirmed by all reasonable means, it is difficult to justify the absence of a system of devolved government, especially of a system which does not have responsibility for the administration of policing and justice within its remit".
What had been created in the North was a climate "where, hopefully, more progress could be made", he said.
"People can begin to talk to each other and work together and discuss with each other the future ahead as a shared future in a way that would not have been possible 10 years ago," the archbishop said.
He also felt that a confident unionism and a confident nationalism were "not mutually exclusive possibilities".
But there was continuing concern at "the failure of certain paramilitary organisations to state clearly that they have accepted the principle of majority consent in the Good Friday Agreement and that, whatever happens in coming months in the political negotiations, they accept that the use of violence for political ends can never be justified.
The failure to provide such reassurances is a matter of deep concern for many people at this time," he said.
He also described as "a convenient but inaccurate presentation" the belief that the situation in the North was "a conflict of religion, of competing Christian traditions resolutely intolerant of one another and vying for dominance".
Far from being the main protagonists of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the main Christian traditions had played "a critical part in building the culture of peace and tolerance which is slowly taking root in our land", he said.
Archbishop Brady was delivering the keynote address at the annual general meeting of the Justice and Peace Commissions of Europe's Conference of (Catholic) Bishops.
The attendance included Bishop Alan Harper, Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, Rev Harold Good, former president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and Rev Donald Watts, Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
