Sir, - As a Catholic Christian, involved for many years in promoting reconciliation among Christians in Northern Ireland, I am deeply saddened by the attacks on Prof Mary McAleese's integrity.
I have been involved with Prof McAleese in a number of crosscommunity activities over the years. In 1993 we launched a North-South/Protestant agreement against abortion and produced a document entitled, "Is God Pro Life?", which was cosigned by Martin and Mary McAleese, 12 Catholic priests and a large number of Protestant church leaders from the North and South of Ireland, including the current Church of Ireland Bishop of Belfast, 17 Presbyterian ministers and their spouses, etc. This document certainly contributed to building bridges between the two communities and continues to do so, as evidenced by the fact that it is standard material for SPUC and CARE (a major Evangelical Protestant organisation in Northern Ireland), as well as LIFE.
A second major initiative in 1994 was an open letter to Protestant Christians in Ulster, published in full in the Belfast Telegraph, in which we stated: "We believe that it is God's express will for all followers of Christ to reach out across the centuries of division, mistrust and accumulated differences in culture and tradition and begin to acknowledge one another openly as brothers and sisters in Christ." Prof McAleese was one of the 25 Catholic signatories to this letter, which was very warmly received by a great number of people in the Protestant community.
Your readers may not be aware that besides Prof McAleese's much publicised involvement with the Redemptorist Peace Mission, she was also the co-chairperson of a very important initiative set up by the four main churches to combat sectarianism, namely the Inter-Church Working Party on Sectarianism. This group produced a landmark document in 1993, which stated:
"It is vital that we find ways out of the fear, rivalry, sense of superiority and enmity which have historically characterised relations between the churches and most Christians in Ireland. The task of reconciliation and not the maintenance of borders is central for us in Ireland - for the credibility of the Gospel is at stake."
I want to personally affirm Prof McAleese's transparent integrity in the field of building bridges between the communities in Northern Ireland, as the above clearly demonstrates. From my personal experience, she has neither a "Sinn Fein" or a "me fein" agenda. Whether or not she becomes the next President of Ireland, I hope and pray that she will not be deflected or discouraged from continuing to build these important bridges between the two divided communities in this country. - Yours, etc.,
Northumberland Avenue, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.