One of the outstanding issues to be resolved before we can have a full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement is full backing of the police by the main political parties.
Sinn Féin still refuses to nominate to the Policing Board and occasionally continues to mount protests at the meetings of district policing partnerships.
While Fr Sean McManus is not a member of Sinn Féin, the US-based Catholic priest has been a stern critic of the RUC in the past and has lobbied against that organisation over the decades.
Fr McManus visited the PSNI training establishment at Garnerville earlier this week.
His visit will not change the way the police are viewed by Sinn Féin. It will not mean an automatic open-arms accept-ance of the service in nationalist areas. But surely it is a small step to be welcomed.
This visit will not make Fr McManus an expert on the now not so new policing arrangements.
And since touring Garnerville and meeting serving officers Fr McManus has not made any public statements on his views.
So there is no way of knowing whether he supports, opposes or is indifferent to the efforts to provide a policing service.
But the fact that Fr McManus has taken the time to see for himself the facilities where future officers are being trained must be viewed as a positive step.
Hopefully other figures with links to that part of the nationalist community who still have misgivings about policing arrangements will follow suit.
While policing is still very much a political football, the issue affects every single one of us on a day-to-day basis.
Whether or not there is a political agreement the criminals continue to burgle, rob, assault and even kill.
We need a police force which receives the widest possible support so that it can provide the best possible service to the whole community.
It is unfortunate therefore that the Democratic Unionist Party should choose therefore to issue a statement calling on Fr McManus to condemn the murders of policemen.
All murders are to be condemned, including those of policemen.
But surely the DUP should be wel-coming any nationalist move which might help resolve this matter rather than issuing what will be interpreted by many as negative statements to positive moves.
