Msgr. Eamon Martin invokes Nelson Mandela's words of peace in church leaders' New Year message

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland said ‘we need to ensure that we teach our children to love, respect and care for one another so that they learn that love is stronger than hate’ in a collective missive with Irish church leaders including the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe Andrew Forster, who is President of the Irish Council of Churches.

"In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, the late Nelson Mandela wrote: 'No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.'

"If we, as church leaders in Ireland, along with our predecessors, were to write a book, it might have a title similar to the one referenced above. We would though probably change the word 'Freedom' to 'Peace'. It has been a 'Long Walk to Peace' in this island and between its peoples,” they said.

The senior clergymen noted how 2023 marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

"It has been a long walk, which on occasion picked up pace, at other times was reduced to a crawl, and is still ongoing. Since the signing of the Agreement in 1998, a whole generation has now come and gone and much has changed in our world on a global scale as well as at a local level, but very few people living in these islands would want to return to the past.

"We therefore need to stay clearly focused on the future, with a renewed commitment to the process of building relationships of mutual respect and trust. Although we have travelled a long way, there is still some distance to go in our journey to peace and much work remains to be done.

“Nelson Mandela was right in his observation that people are not born hating others, it is something which they learn. We need therefore to ensure that we teach our children to love, respect and care for one another so that they learn that love is stronger than hate, good overcomes evil and light scatters the darkness,” they added.

In the joint message co-signed with Archbishop John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh & Primate of All Ireland, Rt. Rev. Dr. Sam Mawhinney, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Rev. David Turtle President of the Methodist Church in Ireland they pledged to ‘continue to build relationships, break down barriers, and work for a sustainable and lasting peace’.

"We enter a new year in which war, violence and conflict now overshadow so many parts of our world. With our experiences here in this land, may we encourage and support others to take those first steps down the road to peace, to walk in the way of reconciliation, to seek to heal and not hurt,” they said.