A redraft of the proposed syllabus for the religious education course to be introduced in secondary schools, "needs a redraft" according to an editorial in the current issue of the Irish Catholic newspaper.
It describes changes in the redraft as "cosmetic" and says that students could still undertake the course without learning very much about Christianity.
"One would have thought that it is in the interests of ecumenism for Christianity to be given pride of place in any subject called religious education," it says.
It also criticises the compulsory section of the Leaving Certificate syllabus in the subject. Titled "The Search for Meaning and Values", the Irish Catholic says it presents religion "as primarily the struggle to find a moral framework within which to live one's life" but that it makes no mention "of the key concepts of sin and redemption in the great monotheistic religions".