Bishops accused of failure on North

The Catholic Bishops Conference has been accused of failing to speak out about abuses of human rights in Northern Ireland.

Writing in a new newsletter, Father Joe McVeigh says: "It must ask itself now at this moment in our history if it has spoken out as clearly and as loudly as it should about the violations of the rights of Irish nationalists and Catholics living within the Northern statelet, not just over the last 25-30 years, but for all the years of that state's existence," The Irish Witness is a Catholic Church-based weekly published by the newly-formed Centre for Human Rights in Ireland. Among those involved are Fathers Des Wilson, Joe McVeigh and John Dear SJ, Mr Kevin Nolan, Ms Ann Gaughan and Mr Des Boyle.

In his article Father McVeigh, who also edits the newsletter, writes that "in spite of welldocumented reports of human rights violations, the bishops have remained silent". "Silence in the face of oppression is seen as complicity," he says. To remain silent about the constant violation of human rights and injustice as experienced by the poor and oppressed is unacceptable, he says, and "it goes against the gospel."

Criticising Christians who are "asking for more prisons and more prisoners to fill them", Father Des Wilson writes in the newsletter that such people are overturning Christ's mandate. He points out that Jesus Christ said prisoners should be free.