THE Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, has been criticised by unionist politicians for suggesting that the British and Irish governments and the Northern parties should accept that another "unequivocally declared" IRA ceasefire is genuine.
He was also censured by the Ulster Unionist Party deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, for appearing to endorse the decision by the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, to stand again for Westminster.
In a letter read at all weekend Masses in the Armagh diocese to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Archbishop Brady said "the use of violence or the threat of violence can never be acceptable in our community".
"An unequivocal restoration of the ceasefire by the IRA is therefore an indispensable precondition for the comprehensive negotiations which are now so urgently needed. I call for intense prayer on the part of all our people that the ceasefire may be restored."
He went on: "Let us pray especially for trust: the trust that will lead to the two governments and all the political parties to accept as genuine a ceasefire, once it is unequivocally declared; the trust between political parties that will allow negotiations to take place; the trust that will eventually achieve a political settlement through agreement and consent."
Mr Taylor told The Irish Times that generally he welcomed Dr Brady's statement. However, he went on: "Trust was destroyed by the failure of the IRA to maintain their first ceasefire and it will require some time after a declaration of a second ceasefire for trust to be restored."
Mr Taylor criticised Dr Brady's "major blunder" in publicly supporting, on television, Mr Hume's decision to stand again for the House of Commons. He regretted that the Catholic primate should be seen to support a particular political party.
The UUP MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone, Mr Ken Maginnis, said to ask people who had seen what had happened to the first ceasefire to take a second one on trust, rather than first to question the IRA's sincerity, was to "put the cart before the horse".
However he said that Archbishop Brady, whom he called "a fairly balanced individual", was probably saying that "people have got to pray that any change in the IRA's approach would be seen as a sincere change and this would engender trust."