THE CATHOLIC Church will remain central to the education of Catholic children in Britain for the foreseeable future, according to leading religious figures in England.Speaking in a letter to all parishes Cardinal Cormac MurphyO’Connor said: “For a very long time now, the Catholic Church has been an important partner with the public authorities in the provision of education for the children and young people of England and Wales.Schooling has been and remains an important part of the mission of the Church.”
Currently over one-in-three schools in public education are faith schools.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor said: “Schools with a religious character are a sector of public education with proven success, they are diverse and they are much sought after each year by hundreds of thousands of parents.”
The Cardinal’s comments come in the wake of remarks made by Irish nun Sr Stanislaus Kennedy who called for the Catholic Church in Ireland to withdraw from running schools and focus on communicating its values instead.
Speaking during an address to the National Council of Priests the founder of the Immigrant Council of Ireland said: “We have changed radically since the Church developed and started to manage our schools.“The Church should note that change. It is the State’s responsibility to provide education — to provide the land and the management.“The Church’s job is to ensure that the faith is passed on. That should be its primary concern.”
Sr Kennedy, who is a wellknown campaigner against homelessness in Dublin, went on to call for “openness from the Church”.
She said: “To have all these Catholic schools managed by Catholic priests is not the way forward.
“I’m not saying there should be a rush out, but there should be a planned approach.”
In Britain there have been calls for faith schools to be abolished.
And recently the Government has announced plans to work with faith leaders to provide more staterun faith schools — a move which it believes would lead to community cohesion and better understanding of different religions.
Cardinal O’Connor rejected suggestions that Catholic schools are out of touch with modern multi-cultural Britain.
He said: “They are catering for as wide a range of pupils as any other group of schools, whether the measure be ability, poverty or ethnic identity.”
And the Cardinal believes that co-operation between the State and the Church is vital for the future.
He said: “Recent and current calls from some for the abolition of faith schools, or their curtailment, fail to take into account this rich history of co-operation between Church and State, which has been to the mutual benefit of both.”
Meanwhile in Coventry a Church of England vicar has called for a multi-faith school to be set up to promote integration in the community.
The Rev Jim Canning of St Paul’s Church, Foleshill said single faith schools were not the way forward.
He said: “Traditionally, Church of England schools have better results so there has been a lot of pressure from Muslim, Sikh and Hindu communities for the Government to back more schools for other faiths. But rather than running schools separately why not give us the opportunity to run one together?”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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