School patronage

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

There's no obligation on any school to teach RE unless the patron demands it. Some ETB schools don't even offer the state RE curriculum

The Archbishop of Dublin has announced “significant” reforms aimed at moving the focus of sacramental preparation away from schools and towards the family and to parishes.

This will include preparations that take place outside school hours as the church seeks to move the emphasis off schools. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said training for the reform campaign, which will be implemented on a phased basis, should begin immediately.

A consultation has been taking place throughout the Archdiocese in an effort, he said, “to strengthen the bond between family, parish and schools in preparing children for sacraments”. It is thought this process was a response to a sense that sacramental preparation, such as for first communion and confirmation, had become too school-focused.

Dr Martin wrote to priests and parishes this week informing them that the Priests Council had endorsed a new approach to the sacraments which would be centred on “supporting parents in sharing faith with their children and that in time will see parishes assume responsibility for the preparation and celebration of all four sacraments”.

In his letter he reminded priests that “more and more Catholic children today attend other than Catholic schools. The proposal is not something that will be accomplished overnight; it cannot however be put forever on the long finger. We must begin now.”

“It will take some time to put in place an effective development of parish capacity to implement this initiative,” he wrote. “We need however to begin immediately with the preparation and training of voluntary lay catechists and the development of resource materials.”

The changes will also raise the possibility of schools spending less time on sacramental preparation during school hours. Catholic schools are entitled to set aside up to 30 minutes of the day for faith formation, although teachers have said these preparations can take longer.

Pilot programmes are planned to enable the preparations to be done outside of school hours, and the programme will be rolled out on a phased basis, depending on the resources available to each parish. The decision is the culmination of a process that began in September 2018 with the establishment of a sacraments review team, which led a consultation process that included an online survey which received 1800 responses.

The review group was partially established in response to concerns that sacraments were running the risk of being turned in to social occasions rather than moments of faith.

An implementation group is to be set up to examine a range of issues, including communicating with schools and parents, recruiting and training volunteers, as well as providing resources and finance for the transition.

"It also advocates a renewed relationship with Catholic schools in promoting Catholic ethos and in delivering the Grow in Love programme."

The Archbishop said he was not catholic schools to remove religious education but said if you remove "the peak" education from second and sixth class there would be "a better allotment of religious education across primary school."

The news that the Archbishop of Dublin has announced reforms around sacramental preparation in schools is to be welcomed. About 90 per cent of taxpayer-funded primary schools in Ireland are controlled by the Catholic Church and from junior infants to sixth class, half an hour every day is spent on religious indoctrination – not including prayers throughout the day. In those years when children prepare for confession, communion and confirmation, this ramps up significantly.

The arguments in favour of moving sacramental preparation outside the school day vary, and many focus on the sheer amount of class time already devoted to religious indoctrination. Teachers complain of curriculum overload and parents note that almost as much time is spent on religious indoctrination in a standard week (at least two and a half hours) as on history, geography and science combined (three hours in total).

However, these concerns do not appear to be central to this decision. The reforms come following a survey conducted by the Dublin archdiocese, and the motivation for change is to get families more actively involved, rather than to passively cede responsibility to schools. In other words, a religious organisation has made a decision relating to faith formation that aims to promote religious engagement. A pretty uncontroversial move, one would think, and that it is deemed newsworthy says much about the ongoing influence of the Catholic Church in State institutions such as our education system. Moreover, it surely merely reflects changes in Irish society – in 1993 more than 93 per cent of marriages in Ireland were Catholic, but by 2018 that figure was below 48 per cent.

Carl O’Brien, in this newspaper, gave an excellent overview of the proposed changes. The observant reader might note that there was no mention of Minister for Education Joe McHugh or the Department of Education in his article. This is not an omission or fault on the part of The Irish Times education editor – it was a common factor in media reportage on this issue. The fact is, the Minister for Education has nothing to do with this decision. When it comes to religious indoctrination in our taxpayer-funded schools, the Minister’s view is that it is essentially none of his business.

It is important to note that the plan to move sacramental preparation outside the classroom will not affect the daily 30 minutes of religious faith-formation that takes place in virtually every primary classroom in the country. Nor will it change the standard practice in these schools of segregating children from the “wrong” religious background for this period every day. That’s right, shockingly it is the norm throughout Ireland for children not of the Catholic faith to be singled out every day in the classroom from four years of age to sit alone at the back of the class while their peers receive faith-formation.

Nothing the Archbishop has proposed will address this disgraceful practice. Nor should it be the job of the Archbishop to do so – although it would be welcome and make for a refreshing change (not to mention that he must surely feel morally compelled to take action).

No, it is up to Minister for Education Joe McHugh to step up and do his job. The Constitution sets out the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school. How does the Minister ensure schools uphold this constitutional right? The Department of Education says it is a matter for each individual school – there is no system of oversight or inspection. So we end up with children segregated in the classroom on the basis of their religious status, absorbing every word of religious indoctrination, while simultaneously othered from their peers. All in an effort to supposedly uphold a constitutional right!

What is being proposed for sacramental preparation is that children, parents and families can opt-in, should they choose to, after school hours. This blindingly obvious approach should apply to all religious indoctrination in taxpayer-funded schools and, indeed, is a logical, practical application of the Constitution’s provisions this area. It should not be left to the Archbishop to make this decision. The Minister must at last exert some influence over our taxpayer-funded schools by ending the systematic religious segregation and discrimination that has been allowed to fester for far too long. He must ensure that any religious indoctrination or faith-formation in our taxpayer-funded schools takes place outside school hours.

This came to mind recently when Bishop Alphonsus Cullinane wrote to the teachers and principals in his Waterford diocese advising them not to use religion class time to go Buddha-like and teach yoga, mindfulness and meditation. Down with that sort of thing, Ted?

However, this was not an unreasonable request as Bishop Cullinane is the patron of these schools.