On Monday, Pope Francis prayed that the 25-year-old Good Friday deal that ended Northern Ireland’s carnage be “consolidated” for all Irish people.
Francis stressed the 1998 treaty, strained since Britain left the EU, in his Easter Monday lunchtime address to tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
Francis recognized the Belfast Good Friday accord’s 25th anniversary.
On April 10, 1998, the Belfast Agreement ended “The Troubles,” three decades of Catholic-Protestant sectarian violence that killed over 3,600 people.
The head of the 1.4 billion-member Roman Catholic Church said, “In a spirit of appreciation I pray to the God of peace so that what was achieved in that historic step could be strengthened to benefit all the men and women of the island of Ireland.”
This week’s commemorations will include President Biden.
For over a year, the Democratic Unionist Party, the main pro-British party, has boycotted the power-sharing devolved government vital to the peace deal over post-Brexit trade restrictions that treated Northern Ireland differently.
This month, MI5 increased Northern Ireland’s risk rating from domestic terrorism to “severe,” implying an attack.
