THE new Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, has warned that "immense patience" would be required from those seeking peace in Northern Ireland.
Dr Brady was giving his first press conference yesterday, a month after he took over from Cardinal Cahal Daly. On Sunday, he will be formally installed as 115th Archbishop of Armagh at a ceremony in St Patrick's Cathedral.
He said the biggest challenge facing him was the same as that of his three immediate predecessors - "the quest for peace and reconciliation in our divided community".
"I believe that, despite all the difficulties, the opportunity for a permanent peace in Northern Ireland still exists. My personal conviction about this is derived from the deep longing for peace which is palpable throughout the entire community."
Said Dr Brady: "The way forward is dialogue and for dialogue to take place, the IRA must stop its violence. Then I would hope that all parties could get into meaningful talks quickly."
On Sinn Fein's involvement, he hoped that "all parties would be included".
"The consequences of allowing another opportunity to slip are just too terrible to contemplate. These opportunities won't come endlessly."
He warned that "a minimum degree of mutual trust is the first step on the road to reconciliation". However, after the events of last summer, "it would be unrealistic to expect trust to be restored quickly" between the two communities.
Dr Brady stressed the unacceptability of continuing high unemployment and social deprivation in Ireland. "The materialism which has been tending to assert a dominant influence on our culture is, in fact, a complex phenomenon. Burnt deep into the Irish psyche is a horror of poverty since so many of our people are but a few generations removed from the terrible reality of its consequences.
"I am not one to decry the impressive social and economic advances which have been a marked feature of modern Ireland. But surely nobody can rest easy in the knowledge that so many are, to use a biblical image, excluded from the banquet."
The new Primate pledged to continue his predecessors' commitment to working closely with leaders of other churches. "What is clearly necessary is that ecumenism should become a living reality at every level in our communities.
He looked forward to leading the Irish Catholic delegation to next summer's Ecumenical Assembly in Austria, only the second time such an assembly was being held.
Dr Brady hoped that the positive reception by child protection agencies to the bishops' guidelines on child sex abuse would "enable those who have suffered abuse to disclose their experiences in the expectation of a caring and sensitive response".
He said he knew of "no theological evidence" in Scripture or in tradition which gave the church the power to ordain women. "It's not a question of not being willing to but what if ordination took place would that woman be a priest? That's the question."
On integrated education he said he respected the right of Catholic parents to send their children to "the school of their choice, but I also know the value of Catholic schools".
Asked about his qualities for the job as Catholic Primate, he quoted the short lived Pope John Paul I. "John Paul I said: `I know I don't have the personality of John XXIII or the formation of Paul VI.'"
"Similarly, I don't have the personality of Cardinal O Fiaich or the formation of Cardinal Daly. But I have the confidence that if the Lord has placed me in this job, he will give me the graces to carry it out if I ask him."