The Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames has spoken out forcefully following claims about the alleged IRA informer "Stakeknife" and the Stevens report, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent.
"What gets me morally and very, very strongly is that if a death could have been prevented and those with the ability to do it, did not do so - as a human being I resent that deeply, that a life could have been saved and was not."
Speaking at a press conference during yesterday's opening session of the Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin he continued, "Now don't write me off as someone who is not realistic. If anything, it can be a question of too much realism [with me]. But there are rules beyond which we should not go."
He had been "very distressed" by the Stevens Report, not just because it dealt with the murder of a young man from his own diocese who had been mistaken for a Catholic.
The young man's parents were friends of his. The report indicated his death could have been prevented. He felt that a real healing process could take place in the North only when all was out in the open and people could make their own judgments.
But he did not think a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would work, because in South Africa there had been "crystal-clear violation of human rights on a coloured basis".
He was satisfied to wait for the DPP to decide on the Stevens Report but "don't let us wait too long and any decisions should not be politically influenced," he said.
He called for leaks to be stopped, as they were "very, very damaging." Reflecting on history, he asked "did nobody see this monster growing?"
He wondered how it was that people of faith and integrity did not recognise something was wrong. "Why has this generation had to pay such an enormous price for the generation before?"
In his presidential address to the General Synod, he said there was a need for the Roman Catholic nationalist/republican community in the North "to recognise there are no 'second-class citizens'. There is a need for them to recognise that genuine goodwill does exist in much of the Protestant community, which like theirs has made mistakes in the past."
In the Protestant/unionist population there was "an urgent need to find a new confidence. Events have eroded self-confidence.They must be allowed move away from the 'siege mentality' - and others can help them by their attitudes, pronouncements and actions to do so."
He emphasised that while the Protestant/unionist community "demand clarity of others' intentions, they need to recognise how far Irish nationalism and republicanism have moved".
At his press conference, Archbishop Eames paid personal tribute to the former British government minister Ms Claire Shortt, who resigned on Monday. He had known no one who, individually or collectively, had done more to highlight the situation of the poor. He was not making a party political judgment, but he was "very, very saddened at the loss of this voice for the voiceless".
In his address, he said that following the war in Iraq, "a new world order has been born". There were deep questions of moral significance about the nature of power and powerlessness. "Theories about a just war have not stood the test of history."
He was convinced that those who wage war "whatever the justification" carried an equal responsibility to engage in humanitarian action, assuming responsibility for human need. There must be new structures of government which made provision for the removal of poverty and need not as a consequence of war or world tragedy, but as an accepted and integral part of fiscal national planning, he said.