Religious returning to their radical roots

During a school retreat, I remember being stunned when an anti-perspirant rolled out of the case of the young nun who had brought our class away for the weekend. It had never occurred to me that nuns used such mundane items.

Silly of me, yes, but symptomatic of a society where members of religious orders were a different order of beings, perched on somewhat uncomfortable pedestals and often seen as occupying some kind of parallel and not terribly relevant reality. Not that we idealised the nuns who taught us. Daily contact meant that we pupils were aware of their shortcomings, but they still held a position of respect.

Within a few short years, sledge-hammers had been taken to the pedestals. The benign if sometimes patronising view of their place in Irish society disappeared, to be replaced by something much darker and in many cases undeserved.

The religious orders, both male and female, were hit by wave after wave of scandals. Some orders did not handle those scandals well at first, resorting in a kind of dazed shock to defensive tactics, and so initially did not adequately respond to the desperate need of victims for acknowledgment and recompense.

Others invested considerable resources in coming to terms with a past much darker than they had believed it to be and received no credit from either a hostile public or media for their efforts.

At the same time declining numbers and questions as to where congregations should be using their energies were demanding answers. It must have been tempting under such circumstances to put their heads down and continue doing what they had always done.

Instead, religious orders have been engaged in a slow and sometimes agonising reappraisal of their role and have, under the auspices of the Conference of Religious in Ireland, CORI, come up with some radical and intriguing proposals.

An example of the new kind of thinking is a paper by the education commission of CORI, entitled Religious Congregations in Irish Education - A role for the future? Produced by Sister Teresa McCormack and Peter Archer, it is a radical document in the sense of returning to roots.

It is easy to forget how subversive those roots were. Edmund Rice, Catherine Mc Auley and Nano Nagle in the 19th century had lived with an education system which excluded the poor and therefore Catholics.

The avowed aim of the system was to produce the "happy English child". The decision to educate the poor was deeply subversive because it challenged the existing order and would eventually help to overthrow it.

The sad thing is that, having helped to overthrow the previous establishment, the religious orders became pillars of the new. Changing circumstances have forced religious to re-evaluate their role, and they have taken courageous and not uncontroversial decisions.

Those decisions have far-reaching consequences. There is a phased withdrawal from schools, handing them over to boards of management and to lay people.

This includes an ongoing programme to support those schools in maintaining a distinctive ethos. Quite reasonably, the religious orders point out that in an era of educated and articulate laity, Catholic or Christian schools should not be dependent on the presence of religious to maintain their distinctive values. I have to admit to a degree of scepticism which I would be happy to see proved wrong.

Secondary schools have become so immersed in a demanding system, often points-dominated, that the ethos can get lost in the rush. There is a distinctive set of values and virtues to which such schools are supposed to subscribe, but how many allegedly Catholic schools actively teach a distinctive view of relationships and marriage, just to take one example?

The religious orders see that when you are immersed in a system it is difficult to buck it, and so they see acting as advocates for change as vital. They will provide a voice both critical and constructive with regard to government policy. This will support those working on the ground, not only in schools formerly run by themselves, but in education generally.

The decision in the 19th century to school the poor was radical. Now the orders see the new challenge not in schools but in education for the marginalised, in particular in community and adult education. They will also be concentrating on groups such as early school-leavers and others failed by the current system. This includes "trail-blazing projects", that is, promoting new and innovative answers to educational needs.

Fostering public debate will be a key part of that, as will forming alliances with groups which do not necessarily share Christian or Catholic values but which are also working for a more equitable society. This is not all airy-fairy stuff, because much of it is happening already. The difference is that it will now be the systematic focus of the orders and where they will utilise their resources.

This a courageous initiative undertaken after extensive consultation. It is an entirely different model of service, one predicated on seeking to influence rather than control. However, I see one danger.

I have no doubt that CORI is absolutely clear about its motivation. As a longer version of the discussion paper says, "The major reason for the founding and continuation of the group . . . is the connection to the mission of Jesus Christ." But will that be clear to the rest of the world?

It is said of Nano Nagle, one of those radical founders, that the more she moved among the people, the more she was drawn to prayer. The central quality of religious orders is that they point beyond themselves to a Creator who lovingly demands of human beings that they change their lives. This is an embarrassing notion in a pluralist society.

The acid test of this initiative is to what degree that distinctive feature of religious orders will continue to be obvious to those whom they wish to serve. Otherwise, they will be back to the question they have asked of their previous ministries: "Could our work be done as well or better by some other means, for example, under the auspices of some other agency?"

bobrien@irish-times.ie