The Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady, has warned against making the pursuit of a perfect solution to the North's problems "the enemy of a good solution".
He continued that "a good solution can create the opportunity for better solutions to emerge."
Speaking yesterday at a Mass to mark the reopening, following renovations, of the St John the Baptist Church near the Garvaghy Road in Drumcree parish, Co Armagh, he appealed "to all involved in the negotiations to grasp the good opportunity that now presents itself and to give us reasons to hope for new possibilities and for a new beginning to our shared future by reaching agreement".
"For, should these hopes be once more dashed, then the only winners will be the cynics, and the losers [ will be] the people who believed that locally elected representatives could take responsibility for our local situation," Dr Brady said.
Over recent years, he noted, "the people of Northern Ireland have made a remarkable journey."