Leaders of churches see need for reconciliation in the North

"One OF my big hopes this Christmas is that the peace process will now become a reconciliation process," the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, said in his homily at midnight Mass in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh, on Christmas Eve.

"It is now up to all of us to take up the task of healing the wounds and moving beyond the bitter legacy of hatred and fear," he said.

"That legacy still burdens us from the past. It is now time to dismantle the walls of division and to reach out the generous hand of forgiveness as we ourselves are forgiven. It is time to commit ourselves anew to creating a climate of tolerance and of trust, a culture of life and love," he said.

The Church of Ireland primate, Dr Robin Eames, in his Christmas message, said the pace of political change in Ireland had been immense, "but we must not forget those who are finding it so difficult to come to terms with developments.

"There are those whose memories of the past, whose sense of genuine hurt and grievance, make it hard to accept political change. . .We still have a long road to travel, for true reconciliation must find its roots in hearts and minds."

At Mass in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin on Christmas Eve, Archbishop Desmond Connell noted how, according to a recent opinion poll, nearly nine out of 10 people in the world had some form of religious affiliation. "These findings would seem to indicate that questions about God have importance for the great majority of people today," he said.

"It is one thing to know about God, but to be able to know Him is something entirely different," he said.

Tribunals and the Committee of Public Accounts have opened a can of worms "revealing greed and dishonesty on a massive scale," according to the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey.

Speaking in Christ Church Cathedral on Christmas Day, he said this had led to "considerable cynicism about some of our central institutions and professions."

He praised the "many unsung heroes" in Ireland who helped the less fortunate, but said that we must also recognise much that was ugly in our society.

He recalled: "Last Easter a spokesperson for the Department of Justice accused me of using intemperate language regarding the shameful plight of asylum-seekers. Others, including a member of Government, have since used much stronger language."

He criticised the failure to deal with homelessness, which "remains a terrible blot on our booming economy."

In his Christmas Day sermon, Dean Robert McCarthy of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin praised the criticisms of the Budget made by Archbishop Desmond Connell and said it was "anti-family".

Dean McCarthy said there was now "an urgent social, as well as religious, reason to support and protect the institution of marriage." It needed to be asserted by everyone interested in the good of society "that married relationships offer by far the most secure basis for the successful upbringing of children."

He described as "astonishing" the fact that "52 per cent of pregnancies in Ireland now occur outside marriage, and of these, three out of eight are aborted".

The president-elect of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Ken Todd, said he thought it "disgraceful" the way Cliff Richard had been vilified and his millennium prayer song boycotted.

"In our secular society, it seems it is all right to make a mockery of Christianity, to ridicule it and blaspheme it and take the name of the Lord in vain, but the one thing that secularism cannot cope with is when you take Christianity seriously," he said.