TALK BACK:The transfer of 50 per cent of schools out of Catholic patronage is good for civil society, writes BRIAN MOONEY
THE POSITION paper issued last week by the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) – the new umbrella group for Catholic schools – represents the opening salvo in what is likely to be a long war on school patronage.
Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn wants 1,500 schools (about 50 per cent of all primary schools) transferred to other patrons.
But achieving this will be a very tall order.
The CSP paper outlines the value of Catholic schools as places where the emphasis is on “the dignity of the human person as a child of God called to work with other persons in creating an inclusive community in service of the common good.”
It argues that a transfer of patronage should only take place where sufficient demand for a school under different patronage can be demonstrated, following some pilot projects, and only after dialogue with the local community.
Who could possibly argue with this very reasonable approach to this issue?
Well I think the CSP is wrong to oppose the Quinn plan.
I believe that the minister’s initiative is a very positive one. If implemented will greatly strengthen both Irish society and the Catholic Church.
Some teachers who know me may be surprised by these views, coming from an ex-seminarian and someone with 20 years experience of religious education. I have also acted as course co-ordinator to the post- graduate religious education programmes in UCD over 15 years.
Here’s my reasoning.
I believe that there is nothing more destructive to the faith of a child than to be catechised and prepared for sacraments by teachers who are not themselves practising Catholics.
It is a lose-lose situation.
The teachers can resent having to do this work. It teaches the child at a very early stage in their personal development that it is okay to say one thing, and believe something completely different. Where has that insight led us to as a society?
The current situation is unsatisfactory in another way. At the moment all schools can give preference to applicants within their own faith community. I spoke recently to a parent who declared himself an agnostic. He was forced to obtain a baptismal certificate for his child in order to enrol him at the local school of his choice.
What does this say to the fellow pupils of that child?
They find themselves queuing up to receive confirmation with someone who openly declares that they have never been in a church before and may never be again.
I believe this kind of hypocrisy undermines our civic society and personal morality. And we have had very serious failures of business ethics in this society in the past two decades.
It is for these reasons that I support the minister’s proposals to give real choice to parents.
If parents and teachers have a real choice – between a school where Catholic faith formation is an integral part of the curriculum and an alternate patronage model - it will result in a far healthier civic society.
And a far healthier Catholic Church.
Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor at Oatlands College, Stillorgan, Dublin
Some teachers who know me may be surprised by these views, coming from an ex-seminarian and someone with 20 years experience of religious education
