Madam, - As a secondary teacher with over 30 years' teaching experience in religious education along with secular subjects, I find the Episcopal Commission's directive that holy days of obligation be observed by the entire school community is close to my heart. Schools are now closed on just three holy days per se: January 6th (Feast of the Epiphany), November 1st (Feast of All Saints) and December 8th (Feast of the Immaculate Conception). The remaining five days of obligation - March 17th (St Patrick's Day), August 15th (Feast of the Assumption) and December 25th (The Nativity) - fall on public or school holidays, while the feasts of the Ascension and Corpus Christi are now celebrated on the following Sunday.
In recent years some Catholic schools have chosen to open on holy days of obligation and to close on a date more convenient for the majority of the staff. While this may appear democratic it raises two pertinent questions. Are these schools safeguarding their Catholic Christian ethos? And what of the rights of their pupils who wish to attend Mass at a time convenient to them or their parents?
In supporting the Episcopal Commission's directive, I believe as teachers we need to support any opportunity offered us to seek space for the spiritual. The closing of schools on three holy days of obligation and the postponement of training courses on one of these days for teachers is unlikely to disrupt the excellent teaching offered in our increasingly stressful profession. - Yours, etc.,
FRANK BURKE, (Synge Street CBS), Fortfield Drive, Terenure, Dublin 6W.