The Catholic Primate, Archbishop Seán Brady, has spoken of the dismay and bewilderment which has followed the recent deaths of two young sportsmen.
In his Easter message he said: "The death of Cormac McAnallen and of John McCall shocked and saddened a lot of people, especially in Armagh and Tyrone. Both were young men, physically fit champions, and captains in their respective sports. No one could have foreseen their sudden deaths.
"The result is that their families are devastated and I offer them my heartfelt sympathy. But many others are dismayed and bewildered. They are left puzzled and questioning - how could this happen?"
He said "the victory of Jesus over sin and death is God's answer to our questions in the face of death. Easter says this loud and clear." The Easter story was "full of stories of despair changed into hope, of sorrow into a wonderful joy, of lack of faith into certainty that Jesus is risen and is with us", he said.
The Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, said that "it is a sobering fact for the Church that the real Gospel of Easter must be expressed in ways which appeal and call for attention which prove it is relevant, necessary and vital for the new Ireland.
"It has to compete for attention in contemporary society in ways past generations would never recognise," he said.
In his Easter Sunday sermon at St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh yesterday, Dr Eames said "secular society is now a fact of Irish life. The seemingly important issues now turn on such as economic efficiency, community development, increasing crime figures, public health and recreation. Important as such issues may be, individual and community values are more and more based on the principles of the market place.
"Pluralism is an admirable vision for Ireland. But the Christian Church needs to recognise that its message now needs to compete as never before with a myriad of other philosophies and value codes which do not have the resurrection as their core truth."
The Church "has to remind the community that its eternal values still hold the key to lasting hope, satisfaction and fulfilment for individuals as well as for society as a whole. It has to recognise the secular society not as an enemy but as a challenge," he said.
In Dublin's Pro-Cathedral yesterday, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, said "the Church in our time must become ever more a community of those who know that they have been reconciled not through any merits of their own but through the superabundance of the mercy of God".
"This is why the Church must appear not as a community which rejects and isolates, but as one which reconciles and heals. We should never attempt to put our own limits on God's mercy, which is infinite." All too often, however, the Church was "locked in a culture of self-affirmation. We find it difficult to accept our weakness and dependence. We thus become unable to accept ourselves or others.
"We end up curiously hating in others what we most hate in ourselves. The Church must rather be a community of the repentant," he said.
