A chara, – The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, does not see any problem with fee-paying Catholic schools (January 27th). How can he justify religious orders with vows of celibacy and poverty devoting their talents to the provision of private education for the wealthy and privileged? They have deliberately chosen the option of the rich. It seems to me to be a form of blasphemy. Their devotion subsidises private education and makes it available at a reduced cost. They enable those who avail of it to cover themselves with a veneer of piety.
Jesus would have been excluded: his mother and foster-father could not have afforded the fees. Wily orders like the Jesuits, under pressure from their own well-meaning but misguided left wing, are aiming to have 10 per cent of the students admitted without fees. Belvedere has already achieved this target. The Labour spokesman on education, Ruairí Quinn, thinks that this is a good idea. In fact, it is quite pernicious. The Jesuits salve their collective conscience, while absorbing a carefully selected group of the intelligent, malleable, “deserving” poor into their elitist system (or so they hope!).
The State should stop subsidising these whited sepulchres forthwith. Why should the bountiful mother of the Ross O’Carroll Kellys get €4 million of taxpayers’ money every year? Private schools would flourish without State subsidy or clerical benediction. They would be clearly seen for what they are. Parents who want private education should pay the full market rate for that education. The diner who chooses to have an expensive evening in Patrick Guilbaud’s or in L’Écrivain does not expect that his or her caviar will be paid for by the widow’s mite.
The Archbishop is concerned that Catholic school identity is at risk. If the Catholic Church abandoned its cynical catering to social stratification, and placed all its resources behind an equitable education system for all the people who wish to avail of it, that identity would be secure and lasting.
– Is mise,
PEADAR MAC MAGHNAIS, Bothar Bhinn Eadair, Báile Átha Cliath 5.
Madam, – Bishop Leo O’Reilly encourages us all to celebrate the work of Catholic schools (Rite & Reason, January 27th). However, a related report in the same edition quotes Archbishop Diarmuid Martin as questioning the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to our young people.
His concern about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes that have produced the largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history is shared by many Catholic lay people. It is widely agreed that our teachers and schools provide a top-class general education and strive to pass on the good news of the faith and sound moral values. However, if subsequent church attendance is the measure, these efforts appear to be unsuccessful and, as such, a waste of very valuable resources. A radical change of approach is needed.
It is easy enough to catechise innocent children in school or to obtain a semblance of conformity from young people in a controlled system up to Leaving Certificate level. However, the real challenge is to evangelise adults and to enable them to lead the way in religious practice and moral action. This is the most effective way to influence a new generation.
Vast resources are being wasted in preparation for sacraments in Catholic schools where a large percentage of the parents are not practising the faith or have unresolved issues such as meaningless word and ritual, negative teaching on sexuality, or the lack of democratic structures within an unreformed Catholic religion. While there are no guarantees today, even in a home where parents practise, there seems to be very little chance of subsequent religious practice in the many families where parents have unresolved issues with the clerical control system.
Pope John XXIII realised 50 years ago that renewal was badly needed in our Church and that all Christians needed urgently to reunite. Vatican II was a wonderful attempt to move towards those objectives and reword our faith. Huge resources should have been expended in educating adult Catholics in the Vatican II documents. Tragically, this did not happen and the Roman control group actively connived to neutralise the thrust of Vatican II.
The cruel abuse and injustice which is mandatory clerical celibacy was reaffirmed in the early 1970s, with the ongoing tragic consequences of clerical child abuse, the emerging shortage of priests and the immoral deprivation of the Eucharist to Catholic people. The obvious injustice of the refusal by a patriarchal control group to ordain women undermines so much of the wonderful teaching and action for justice by missionaries and lay people. Those are some of the issues that need to be tackled soon in a Vatican III. There is no need to commit so many resources to Catholic schools. The adults and parents will bring the children to Jesus once they have met him along the road.
– Is mise,
JOE MULVANEY, Sycamore Drive, Dundrum, Dublin 16.