Madam, – Atheist Ireland welcomes the comments of the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, that Catholic dominance of schools is not tenable (Patsy McGarry, Home News, February 23rd). Education is a human right and part of that right is respect for the religious and philosophical convictions of all parents in the education system.
At present parents who do not want a religious ethos in the formation of their children are denied their basic human rights. Human rights are guaranteed to individuals, not to a religious majority in a given area.
Therefore plurality of patronage, “as far as possible” means human rights “as far as possible”. That is unacceptable in a modern democratic republic and contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Irish State therefore, has an obligation to ensure all parents and children are guaranteed their basic human rights in the education system. Only access to secular education throughout the country for all parents in all areas will ever achieve this. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin states that Catholic culture in Ireland “does not have the prominence or the intellectual leadership that it should have” (Home News, February 23rd). He is correct.
One of the main reasons for this state of affairs is that when issues arise for Catholics that are considered controversial by the ecclesiastical authorities – such as homosexuality, the position of women or the creeping infallibility within the church – the response of these authorities is one of immediate silencing of writers on these issues. This is especially true when theologian clerics attempt to write about these things. When the rest of the church see the treatment meted out to these theologians and the honours granted to those who follow the Vatican theological strictures, they throw in the towel and give up defending the indefensible. Such attitudes by the official church especially affect young people who see and experience this institution with no intellectual openness to discuss issues that affect their lives; their response is one of alienation and they search elsewhere for spiritual meaning to life.
That is the main reason Archbishop Martin can visit parishes where he “can encounter no young people”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – A brief comment on Archbishop Martin’s Cambridge input on the current state of the Catholic Church in Ireland (Home News, February 23rd).
I have been involved for most of the past 40 years with encouraging young people (age 13 to 30) to participate in the church’s liturgy. I have written in local newspapers and church journals, I have spoken on local radio, I have explained my ideas at numerous gatherings and meetings. I can recall only one or two reactions to all this output. No one seems to be interested.
Last year I organised feedback from eight young adults involved in one of my groups, to a survey of opinion on the Pope’s letter to the people of Ireland, which was being put together by the relevant hierarchy committee; imagine my surprise when I discovered that ours was the only youth input in the entire country. Obviously, no one else bothered to ask them their opinion.
Some years ago, as a comment on the growing crisis in vocations to the priesthood, I wrote a letter to the local newspaper asking that something be done to involve lay people more constructively in the life of the parish: to be told that my comments weren’t relevant to our parish as we didn’t have a problem.
We, the Catholics of Ireland have a problem, we have several problems. – Yours, etc,