No political cause can ever justify armed robbery and racketeering, the Catholic Primate of All Ireland has said.
Dr Seán Brady said yesterday: "No cause, no sense of alienation from the State, no warped moral logic can ever regard activities such as armed robbery, racketeering and maiming as anything other than gravely contrary to the common good and therefore criminal, sinful and a constant threat to justice and peace."
He made his comments in a homily in Faughart, north Louth, for five Sisters of the Order of St Clare from Waverley in Australia at the Poor Clare Monastery of the Light of Christ.
He said: "No one should be in any doubt that the deliberate and intentional killing of the innocent is a crime by any human standard and a grave evil in the sight of God."
Dr Brady added that "the language of anger, or of subtle threat, humiliation or intimidation, merely compounds the sense of disillusionment in the general public about politics and politicians".
He said: "Peace, without a commitment to the common good, to the good of the whole of society in all its complexity of allegiances, identities and aspirations, is a peace that cannot be sustained."
The Belfast Agreement "was a vote for peace, a peace based on the values of justice, truth and freedom. That should not be forgotten." He appealed to "those with influence in the current situation to return to the methodology and language of patient and constructive dialogue and negotiation".