Peter Robinson has said he is prepared to attend funeral Masses “as a mark of respect” for dead Catholic friends and dignitaries.
It will be seen as evidence of Mr Robinson’s aim to reposition the DUP as a secular, centre-right party.
“We have to be a party that has respect and understanding for all sectors of the community,” he said.
Attending Mass will be a first for any DUP leader and will provide a clear lead to ministers who have in the past felt unable to attend Catholic funerals.
For instance, when Cardinal Cahal Daly was laid to rest last year, DUP ministers Arlene Foster and Sammy Wilson visited Armagh to offer sympathies to the church hierarchy, but did not enter the city's Catholic cathedral or walk in the Cardinal’s cortege.
Even this caused some awkwardness in party circles at the time.
Mr Robinson sidestepped theological issues, and said: “I would have no objection to attending the funeral of a friend who was a Roman Catholic.
“I wouldn’t be going as an act of worship, I would be going as an act of respect for the individual.”
He regards this issue as a matter of individual conscience rather than party discipline, and added: “These are personal |matters and some of my other colleagues might have a different view on them.”
A precedent was set in 2009 when Jimmy Spratt, the DUP policing spokesman and a former police officer himself, represented the party at the funeral of Constable Stephen Carroll, a Catholic who was murdered by republican dissidents.
Mr Robinson said: “I have been in a Roman Catholic chapel on a number of occasions but not for a service.”
He added: “I have a very large number, perhaps a surprisingly large number, of Roman Catholic friends.
“There are issues of showing respect to individuals so that (religious objections) would not keep me out of going to the communion service.”
Mr Robinson was recently filmed welcoming Prince Charles to St Malachy’s Church in Alfred Street.
The two men were clapped as they left the historic building where Fr Martin Graham, a curate, showed them the results of a £3.5m restoration project.
Mr Robinson said the event showed that Northern Ireland had entered a “new era”.
He said: “It is a good start. It should send an indication that respect, understanding and tolerance is growing in Northern Ireland.”
The DUP’s traditional difficulty with Catholic services dates back to its origins in the Free Presbyterian Church which, like the party itself, was founded by the Rev Ian Paisley.
Mr Paisley set the tone by refusing to attend any function at which Mass was celebrated, describing the Catholic communion service as an “abomination” and “idolatry”.
He objects to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which holds that the bread and wine used in the service actually become the body and blood of Christ.
Many fundamentalist Protestants shared his objections — for instance, members of the Orange Order are also expressly forbidden to attend and can be disciplined for doing so.
Mr Robinson is not a member of the loyal orders, or of any church.
However, he is a bible-believing Protestant and frequently attends Pastor James McConnell’s Metropolitan Tabernacle, an evangelical mega-church in north Belfast.
His sister Pat Herron is a minister in the Free Methodist Church.
DUP sources say that Mr Robinson’s willingness to attend Catholic functions, including Mass, as part of his duties as First Minister, raises the question of whether Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, will now attend functions at which members of the Royal family are present, or funerals of local soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
So far, he has declined to do so.
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