The Catholic Church must take a back seat in religious education in national schools, according to John Carr, the leader of the largest primary teacher's union, the Irish National Teacher's Organisation (INTO).The traditional dominant role of the Church in this sphere has no place in a changing Ireland, he said.
Ireland had become a multilingual, multicultural and multi-faith society, Mr Carr continued.
However, his assertion that Ireland is becoming more religiously diverse is somewhat at odds with the latest Census findings. According to those figures, 94 per cent of the country still call themselves Christian.
Non-christian religions, such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism make up just over one per cent of the population.
Mr Carr went on to say that even within denominational schools, different patterns of religious adherence were emerging, with some parents not wanting their children to participate in religious instruction.
He claimed that the Catholic Church, which currently runs about 97 per cent of the 3,300 primary schools in the country, clung to the concept of ethos to dictate what religious education was given.
"The State cannot continue indefinitely to build different types of schools to accommodate diversity in every part of Ireland, and the education system has to work out a modern approach to deal with diversity, inclusiveness and respect."
Mr Carr said he respected the right of churches and groups to establish schools, but in the context of a changing Ireland it was time to explore the possibility of a new model of religious education.
The sort of issues that needed to be addressed were whether someone from outside would come in to teach, for instance, Islam, or whether teachers would be expected to do it.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce