THE END of two centuries of Christian Brothers schools has been marked by the formal handing over of control of its 96 schools in the Republic to a charitable trust run by lay people.
The newly-formed Edmund Rice Schools Trust was granted trusteeship and operational responsibility for the schools and their 35,000 students and 2,700 teachers at a ceremony in Dublin Castle yesterday.
Its stewardship becomes effective from the start of the new school year in September.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly, chairman of the members of the trust, paid tribute to the extraordinary contribution made by the Christian Brothers to Catholic education, the life of the State and public life. In spite of this contribution, he claimed, the brothers were the victims of "amnesia" in society about their achievements.
He said the brothers had experienced unimaginable change in recent years as the once constant stream of recruits dwindled to a trickle and then disappeared.
The trust, a company whose members include former DCU president Dr Danny O'Hare and former president of the EU parliament Pat Cox, will have responsibility for the appointment of school boards.
The company has six directors, with Pat Diggins as chairman. Dr Leo O'Reilly, Bishop of Kilmore and chairman of the education commission of the Bishops' Conference, said the ceremony marked a landmark in the story of Catholic education in Ireland. The Christian Brothers' "distinguished and distinctive" contribution to education was being carried forward by a lay trust.
Dr O'Reilly saluted the "outstanding achievements" of the brothers, founded in the early 19th century to respond to the educational needs of Catholic parents.
"Generations of Irish people have received a first class education and a host of opportunities in life that would otherwise never have been open to them, due to your dedication," he said.
In the early 20th century, the brothers had played a major role in preparing the young people who would later run the Irish Free State; in the latter part of the century, they had provided students with the education that enabled them to benefit from membership of the EU.
More recently, they had responded to the "sign of the times" by setting up the lay trust. While this was obviously linked to the decline in vocations, it wasn't the only reason for such a "bold step". Dr O'Reilly cited the Second Vatican Council's affirmation of the importance of lay people in the church.
Br Kevin Mullan, chairman of the outgoing Christian Brothers trust, said the Department of Education should provide support for the trustees of Catholic voluntary schools so they could continue to provide parents with a choice of school types into the future.
