The Church of Ireland Primate has described the placing of a replica mosque at the top of a loyalist pyre in Moygashel, Co Tyrone as “abhorrent” and warned that sectarianism is “morphing” into racism.
Archbishop Michael Jackson said this was an “extremely alarming” development.
He was speaking at a press conference for Irish and European Church leaders following their meeting with the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, in the context of Ireland’s Presidency of the EU.
He said the idea of “burning or incinerating something that is of essential affection to a faith body, which is entitled under freedom of religion to practice its religion in the country where the people live, was to be condemned”.
“I think is a massive wake-up call to us all,” Dr Jackson warned and added that it was not simply “unacceptable”, but it was also “corrosive and destructive”.
Senior Irish Church representatives, members of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and members of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) met with the Taoiseach on Thursday.
The delegation represents over 380 million Christians across the EU.
In their presentation to Mr Martin, the Churches highlighted that civil society, as well as Churches and religious communities, play a positive role in countering dangerous phenomena that divide societies, such as the spread of reductive ideologies, societal polarisation, xenophobia and violent extremism.
The group also highlighted they concern over undue restrictions to freedom of conscience and religion within the EU.
Dr Jackson told the Irish Independent that the “instrumentalisation of religion” and concern around freedom of faith and conscience were “alarming and pulsating concerns”.
The Church leaders called for increased media literacy and civic education as a priority.
Asked about their call for the Irish EU Presidency to provide more space for protective safe legal passages into Europe, Dr Jackson said, “people are dying in the Mediterranean, that in itself is a scandal”.
He said the delegation heard very clearly in their talks with the Taoiseach that one of the fracture points in contemporary EU life is migration, and it is fracturing countries internally.
The Taoiseach, he said, had accepted the Church representatives’ appeal for sustained and enhanced humanitarian aid on the basis that if life was “more liveable for people where they live, they may not actually be forced to go through the horrific experience of migration.”
Equally important are policies that support the integration of migrants into host societies, the Church leaders said.