The murder of Lurgan solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson made it significantly more difficult to achieve political progress - yet politicians must go the "extra mile" to make the Belfast Agreement work, the Catholic Primate, Dr Sean Brady, has stated.
Dr Brady said until the Belfast Agreement was "substantially implemented" it would remain at serious risk from the "destructive tendencies of intransigent people on both sides".
The Primate made his comments in Armagh yesterday as the chief constable of Kent, Mr David Phillips, was arriving in Belfast to oversee the RUC investigation into Ms Nelson's murder.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission welcomed the appointment of Mr Phillips but called for greater outside involvement in the murder inquiry.
It has urged the RUC Chief Constable to involve non-RUC officers in the investigative work so far as possible. "A mere supervisory role for outsiders would not be enough," the Commission said in a statement.
The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition insisted yesterday that it had called for security protection for Ms Nelson a number of times last year. Its spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, claimed the request went straight to the "British government", although a Downing Street spokesman denied this. Mr Mac Cionnaith also accused the RUC of collusion in Ms Nelson's murder.
In his St Patrick's Day sermon, Dr Brady noted that parties to the agreement were committed to using "any influence" they had to achieve decommissioning by May 2000. "It is an issue to be dealt with in the context and manner decided by the agreement," he told a congregation in St Patrick's Cathedral.
He urged all parties to the agreement to show they were "complying in good faith with the letter and spirit of the agreement. A willingness to go the extra mile could make all the difference in generating the momentum required to carry the process forward." This was a period of hope and some uncertainty. Only last week the Catholic bishops spoke of general uneasiness within the peace process which was based to some extent on what appeared to be a recent "orchestrated campaign of violence intended to create political instability", he continued.
"The brutal murder of Rosemary Nelson is the most recent and most deadly of at least a dozen pipe bomb attacks and almost nightly firebomb attacks against Catholics," he said.
"Her murder strikes at the heart of the legal and justice system. All these attacks make the task of building confidence incredibly more difficult. Yet the effort to do so and to travel the road of politics and dialogue must continue. There is no viable alternative."
The Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, welcomed Mr Phillips's involvement in the Nelson murder inquiry. It was a "brave action" by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, to bring him in.
"There has got to be accountability, and there must be the removal of every single suspicion that could drive a wedge between our communities," he added.
The president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev David J. Kerr, referred to Ms Nelson's murder when he spoke at a parade at the Royal Irish Regiment Barracks in Ballymena. He said St Patrick was also "the victim of violence, tribal hatred and a desire to dominate others".
He said we were faced with a choice between maintaining "the narrow ground of bitterness and bigotry which both separates and holds us together", or following St Patrick's example by being "generous, open-hearted, not ignoring or making little of hurt and pain but ceasing to hold our wrongs and injuries against one another".
