CARDINAL Daly has told the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation that all party talks involving Sinn Fein have been delayed for too long.
The Catholic Primate said the political representatives of the paramilitaries had engaged in "a long and difficult process" within their organisations in expectation of talks, and their achievement in maintaining the ceasefires for the past 18 months should not be belittled.
He said that only by talking would stereotypes, mistrust and fear be overcome. Such talking would be a "learning process" for Sinn Fein as well as for the other "parties involved.
In his opening statement, the Cardinal said Ireland was different from other pluralist societies in that "a significant number of citizens" made political decisions "in the light of a conscience influenced by the teaching of their church".
However, the Catholic Church would have to live with the consequences of the divorce referendum and was "quite happy" to minister in a pluralist society, "provided she has full freedom to proclaim her teaching".
The Hierarchy's delegation to the forum included four women.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, asked whether they thought it was time for a formal separation of church and state in the Republic, in the context of the current constitutional review. This would both reflect the Republic's more secular and pluralist ethos and enable better relationships with people in Northern Ireland, he said.
The auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Donal Murray, said he was rather perplexed by Mr Spring's question since he understood that Church and State were already separated in the Constitution.
The Tanaiste then asked whether the church should not allow people in a mixed marriage to make their own decisions about how to bring up theirs children.
Bishop Murray said this was the position. He quoted 1983 Irish episcopal guidelines which said a Catholic partner's pre nuptial commitment to bring cup the children as Catholics was in no way to deny that your partner may feel equally strongly on the matter, and has an equal right to claim that his or her conscience, rights and duties should be taken seriously."
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton asked if there would be scope for part of the school day or week in Catholic and state (i.e. mainly Protestant) schools in Northern Ireland to be devoted to children of both traditions studying or playing sports together.
Cardinal Daly said he had asked the principals of two Catholic post primary schools in Armagh about this, and assured the Taoiseach that he would be "pleased" at the amount of school time which was spent "teaching about and sharing with" the other community, through the Education for Mutual Understanding (EMU) programme.
Father Martin O'Callaghan, principal of St Mary's Catholic teacher training college in Belfast, said that only 40 per cent of Northern schools had cross community contact, although it was "growing slightly all the time."
He said the EMU programme, had been "introduced ineptly in 1989. Children from opposing communities had been taken to play games together without their teachers receiving adequate preparation. The emphasis now was more on education for mutual understanding within schools first.
The Alliance leader, Dr John, Alderdice, asked if there should be "radical changes in the regulations of the Roman Catholic Church if it is going to become a promoter of pluralism in the Republic."