Local priest travels to Ireland to promote peace

Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008 | midnight

In parts of Belfast, Northern Ireland, barriers called "peace walls" separate Protestants and Catholics; and separate Nationalists and Unionists; and even separate neighbors.

Tension among the two religious groups in Northern Ireland has existed for centuries, but the walls were built to minimize the violence that raged from both sides during the late 1960s until the late '90s. With brutal violence in the recent memory of many Irish people, a Catholic priest from Las Vegas visited to help them further peace and keep reconciliation in the forefront of their minds.

The Rev. Bob Stoeckig of St. Joseph Husband of Mary Roman Catholic Church, 7260 W. Sahara Ave., along with 38 other Catholic and Presbyterian church officers from the United States, traveled to Northern Ireland from Aug. 12 to Aug. 31 for the 12th Biennial Irish Summer Institute sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Committee for Northern Ireland of the Presbyterian Church USA.

During Stoeckig's visit, he met Father Gerry Reynolds, an Irish Catholic priest who has been assigned to a traditionally violent area for 25 years in Belfast.

"When he was first assigned to the area, he was afraid for his own life: 25 years ago, there were many bombings and you did not cross the (peace) wall," Stoeckig said. "But he met an older, wiser (Catholic) priest who took him to the bell tower where you could look down on both sides of the wall and pointed to the Catholic side and said, 'These are God's people,' then he pointed to the Protestant side and said, 'These are God's people too.'"

The experience inspired Reynolds to break ground among the two groups to create peace. When a 16-year-old Protestant boy was killed in a religious upheaval, Reynolds asked the Protestant minister if he could visit the boy's family — an act unheard of at the time, Stoeckig said.

"He brought with him a wooden carved face of Jesus, a tangible expression of sorrow," Stoeckig said. "As he held the wooden object with the mother, they both put their hands around it and cried. He felt like their tears blessed their experience and the face of Jesus. That gave him the courage and moral conviction to work for the goal of peace."

Reynolds was one of the many religious leaders the group met with to accomplish the group's three primary goals.

The first goal was to listen to and understand history from the points of view of the different factions in Northern Ireland. The group listened to political leaders, religious leaders and everyday community members.

"Many Catholics and Protestants grow up with almost a completely different sense of history," Stoeckig said. "The other guy is always the bad guy."

He also listened to understand the current political peace. The two groups are "not killing each other at the same rate," Stoeckig said, because of a political agreement called the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a major political development in the Northern Ireland peace process.

The second reason was to support existing peace-furthering efforts.

"By visiting the communities where real work is going forth, we're supporting them," Stoeckig said.

The third reason was to try and bring key people to the table, not just Catholic and Presbyterian ministers and priests, but also community members who may live in poorer areas.

Although the larger cities have made significant improvement in peace and attitude even within the couple of years since Stoeckig was there last, he hasn't seen the same improvement in the rural and poorer areas of Ireland. The group encouraged community members to talk to each other and understand the other's point of view.

"At the grass roots level we come together to listen together as human beings and to hear the other person's view of history to foster understanding," Stoeckig said.

Understanding is one thing, but forgiving is another. Stoeckig said that because the violence was so recent, many Irish people feel that if they give in at all, it means their loved one died or was injured in vain.

"If you believe that what you're fighting for is right, then you compromise. What does it mean, the value of the lives that were lost in the struggle?" Stoeckig said. "Moving on is difficult because they don't want to dishonor those lives lost."

The Civil Rights Movement of the United States is the hope for Ireland, Stoeckig said. There are pictures of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. hanging in government buildings or painted on murals on walls in Belfast.

"It makes me think, 'What's our responsibility to the world when people look to us as an example,'" Stoeckig said. "How have we lived up to that or how have we fallen short?"

Because the United States is a mix of different religions that are able to get along, America is an example to Ireland.

"Some entrenched communities are baffled by how we can get along with each other," Stoeckig said. "But we grew up that way, knowing that everyone has the right to worship God the way they feel."

Jenny Davis can be reached at 990-8921 or [email protected].