SO THE Roman Catholic Church is to be denied a veto on the appointment of religion teachers in new multi-denomination primary schools in Ireland.The teachers have insisted; the Minister for Education has emphasised it; and the Catholic bishops have welcomed the new model.
A new era has dawned.
Or has it? A colleague who is fairly tolerant in matters of religion, although a non-believer, said last week, "We can't turn back the clock, even if our homegrown mullahs are learning from their Eastern brethren."
And somehow, when you reflect on the details of the new plans, his remark seems a lot closer to reality than the politically correct "all together now, smile for the camera" approach of those in authority over the educational future of our children.
Or, as Paul Roe, chief executive of Educate Together, put it: "the documents will leave the suspicion in people's minds that the model is being configured primarily to facilitate the withdrawal of the Catholic Church from the management of primary schools while bestowing on it a privileged position in the new model."
Or, as I'd be inclined to put it myself: power without responsibility, effort or expenditure.
The documents referred to by Paul Roe were released to the Irish Independent last week, and include a note of a meeting held in April last year between the Department of Education and the Episcopal Commission, in which the Commission set out a series of "protocols" concerning the religious structures it would demand in the schools from which it is withdrawing.
These include a requirement that parish clergy will have "visiting rights" and that religious instruction would be a minimum non-negotiable requirement.
The Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (a synonym for the parish priests who currently own and control the schools, although the schools don't receive a penny of Church money, and are supposedly entirely funded by the taxpayer) state that without this religious instruction during school hours, and controlled by the Church, the schools would be "non-denominational primary schools operating a moral education programme that would not be a denominational faith-based religious instruction and formation programme."
In other words, you can have inter-denominational schools provided they're Roman Catholic inter-denominational schools. And get back in your pagan immoral box if you're suggesting that any other denomination can provide a proper moral code for life.
Further, religion teachers will have to be approved personally by the men in black. The VECs who will now run and own the inter-denominational schools will draw up a list of the people they propose to employ as religion teachers, and submit it to the clergy, who will then approve it . . . or not, as the case may be. And the VECS will respectfully comply. But that's not a veto; it's merely pastoral care.
A spokesman for the Episcopal Commission on Education explained all this when interviewed by Sean O'Rourke on RTE's News at One last week. It was theology at its finest: with the word "veto" flying around our minds as the holy bishop spelled out the "non-negotiable demands", and Sean O'Rourke suggesting "a veto, then?" as he translated his Canonical language for us. Of course, it wasn't a veto.
This seemingly minor educational development is actually the first real challenge to the overwhelming power of the Catholic Church since the foundation of the State.
The Church still controls the health system, with our hospitals either owned and therefore subject to a Catholic ethos enforced by the religious orders, or run under strict Catholic control by ethics committees controlled by the hierarchy.
The planned introduction of a few primary schools under the control of the VEC (that is, the State) rather than the Church is the first time in our history that we have attempted to put something of prime importance in our lives and futures completely outside the control of the Church.
And the Church, despite its Canonical language, doesn't like it.
The "special position" of the Catholic Church was removed from the Constitution in the Seventies.
The Church expressed itself perfectly happy that it was no longer the State religion, allowing people to believe that they really never had lived under the thumbs of the men in black.
But the Church knew better: it was still in control of education, and along with health, that was all that mattered.
The Jesuits say if they are given a child for its first seven years, that child is theirs for life. Give a child to the Church in the early years of its education, and it is fixed for life. Many parents want that; and they have a right to choose it. But there are others who do not; and they should never fool themselves into thinking that their children are getting anything other than a completely orthodox Roman Catholic set of values in the primary schools of this State.
Now there is a move to loosen the grip of the Church on primary-level education, the most vital element in the future formation of our citizens.
The Church will fight that to the death, and despite the protestations of the minister, it seems likely it will win: Canonical language will ensure that few people, least of all Ms Hanafin, will realise how fundamental this battle is. She is a practising Catholic and would be genuinely puzzled that anybody would find Catholic educational principles offensive.
The same is true of the Taoiseach, a regular Mass-goer, who has described secularism as "aggressive".
So nobody had better hold their breaths in the hopes of seeing primary schools with a secular humanist ethos being established in this country.
The Constitution guarantees the right of parents to have their children educated according to their beliefs. But that doesn't apply if you want your children to be given a strict moral code unrelated to religion.
And if the Catholic Church has its way, even the miserably few schools that are planned with a "multi-denominational" ethos will have the Catholic ethos built into their blood, bone and classrooms.
All that's being suggested under the new scheme is that children should still receive religious indoctrination, but by teachers employed by the State rather than the churches. And even that is a step too far for the Catholic Church.
That they have even dared to make their arrogant demands is proof enough that neither the Government nor the VECs have the foresight to realise just how historically important this particular battle is.
But the Church does.
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