Catholic education

Madam, - Breda O'Brien asks (Opinion, October 16th): "If Catholics really are a minority [ if!] who will vociferously defend …

Madam, - Breda O'Brien asks (Opinion, October 16th): "If Catholics really are a minority [ if!] who will vociferously defend the rights of a minority of committed Catholics to Catholic education for their children, as vigorously as the rights of other minorities are defended today?"

I am grateful to Ms O'Brien for challenging such an evasive, lazy good-for-nothing as myself and asking me where I stand. And however reluctant I may feel, I have to respond to her positively, "I will!".

Why? Because it is not the business of the State to educate but to govern. For Catholics the church is, from its profoundest being, their educator. And for those not blessed with this church I humbly suggest that for them it is their temple, culture or inner identity that must educate them. And if they have no "inner identity" to protect them from this usurping of an abstract and bloated executive, I say "God help them"! - Yours, etc.,

PATRICK PYE, Piperstown, Tallaght, Dublin 24.