Madam, – The pernicious influence of the Catholic Church in the Irish State is evidenced yet again by Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe’s statement that the removal of religious influences from schools is “not within my remit, nor indeed within my thought” (Home News, December 19th). If it is not within the Minister for Education’s “remit” then who is responsible? On the same day in your paper the chairman of the Bishops’ Commission on Education, Bishop Leo O’Reilly, states that “a [school] patron can only be recognised and registered as such by the Minister of Education”.
Appropriately enough for a religion and state embedded together neither the Minister nor the bishop is prepared to take responsibility for the fact that more than 95 per cent of national schools, all funded by the taxpayer, directly implement a Catholic ethos. There is very little room in Ireland for a non-Catholic child.
The status quo of a Catholic Ireland will remain unless there is legislation to separate church and State. The token resignation of a few bishops while tolerating a monolithic religion’s stranglehold on our education and healthcare is a fudge suited to politicians and bishops who, after all, do have the same hymn book. – Yours, etc,