The Catholic primate, Archbishop Seán Brady, said last night that Catholics and nationalists in the North must challenge "vigorously" any ambivalence about the presence or actions of non-democratic and totally unaccountable armed groups in their midst. It was also "vital" to maximise the confidence of the Catholic community in the new beginning to policing," he said.
Protestants and unionists must address any ambivalence in their community about loyalist violence.
"It is more than just a perception that Unionist leaders, British politicians and the British media do not treat the existence of the loyalist paramilitaries with the same vigour and determination as that of republican paramilitaries," he said.
He felt it difficult to underestimate the impact of endless collusion allegations between security forces and loyalist paramilitaries "on the confidence of the Catholic community in the impartiality of the British government generally and in the new beginning to policing in particular".
The archbishop was delivering a major address on "Faith and Identity - a Catholic Perspective on Northern Ireland" at St Ethelburga's Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, in London.
For a lasting peace to take hold in the North people had a Christian duty "to do more than is reasonable or justified in our own terms, for the sake of the common or greater good".
"The Catholic community cannot seek a more just, free and equal society and at the same time be patient with the forces in our own community which contradict these principles. We cannot swap old forms of captivity and oppression for new ones," he said.
The referendums on both sides of the Border on the Good Friday agreement were "an act of self-determination by the people of Ireland". They "declared clearly and unequivocally that there is no further need of violence to resolve or pursue the question of a united Ireland, or indeed to maintain the union". It was "now time to face up to the full implications of that act of self-determination".
The Catholic community must also take "shared responsibility for the administration of law and order and continuing to ensure its reform," he said.