Christianity has the capacity to hold diversity together at this difficult time in the world, the director of Veritas Publications said last night.
Ms Maura Hyland was speaking at a reception in Dublin to mark the publication in book format of Christianity, a collection of Irish Times articles written and published to mark the millennium year.
"It is important for us to recognise that Christianity has the capacity to hold diversity together and I think that very often we don't explore that capacity to the extent that we should," she said.
Ms Hyland said the year 2000 was marked by many events but the connection between the celebrations and the origin of the millennium itself - the birth of Christ - was often missing. "One place where the connection was clearly identified was in The Irish Times series Christianity 2000", she said.
The book was launched by Mr Mr Eoin McVey, managing editor of The Irish Times. Mr McVey said the book was in every sense a symbol because it brought together for the first time The Irish Times, in the past a symbol of the Church of Ireland, and Veritas, the official publisher of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
He said The Irish Times had always attached great importance to the reporting of religious affairs. He noted religious reporting "is never easy. It's very far away from being a soft job. Religious affairs correspondents are required to show great skills of diplomacy, of thoroughness, and of determination."
He paid tribute to the paper's religious affairs correspondent Mr Patsy McGarry, who edited the book, and the Rev Patrick Comerford, a Church of Ireland priest and an Irish Times journalist, who contributed a brief history of Christianity.
Among the book's contributors are Mrs Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Dr Desmond Tutu, the retired Archbishop of Cape Town.