Such are the vagaries of news that a story which in one week might get a lot of attention will get none at all in another.
In
a quieter week than this, a speech Archbishop Diarmuid Martin delivered in Mater Dei Institute on the subject of church and
State would have been reported more widely than it was.
It
deserved to be, because in it he had important things to say about the
Constitution, the planned children's rights referendum, the
constitutional definition of marriage, and the future of denominational
education.
With regard to children's rights, he acknowledged the
need to "ensure the rights of children are properly protected" but
cautioned against thinking that "simply moving responsibility from
parents to the State would provide a more effective answer".
In a
low-key, non-confrontational manner (which may also explain the lack of
media coverage) he also fired a shot across the bows of the Government
and its planned
'Constitutional Convention'.
The Government
doesn't need to be told that Martin is the most influential churchman in
the country and therefore it should pay attention to what he had to say
on this.
With regard to the Constitution in general, he defended
it against "simplistic caricatures" that it represents an "unquestioning
regurgitation of sectarian Catholic principles".
He said it is
"remarkably modern in many of its aspects" and that constitutions should
not be "played around with lightly".
He defended the
constitutional definition of the family as based on the marriage of a
man and a woman.
He said other forms of relationship should be given
their fundamental rights, but that traditional marriage is "a
fundamental good in society, which deserves a unique protection".
But
the government minister that needs to pay the closest attention of all
to this address is our new Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn.
Despite
his embarrassing neo-McCarthyite paranoia at the time of the
publication of the Ryan Report about the Department of Education being
infiltrated by members of Opus Dei and the Knights of St Columbanus, I
suspect that Quinn on the whole will be more inclined to listen to
opposing views than some of his colleagues.
He will have heard
Martin welcoming the planned national forum on the future running of
Irish primary schools.
But then, the forum was an idea of Diarmuid
Martin in the first place.
He will also have heard him asserting the right of Catholic schools to exist, however many or few they may be in the future.
Quinn
doesn't seem to want to deny them this right in any case.
He seems to
believe in the principle of parental choice, meaning the State should
not serve up to parents a one-size-fits-all model and instead, within
reason, should give them the schools they want.
The main purpose of the coming forum is to find out what they do want.
But
the danger is that parents won't get a look-in at all and instead it
will be dominated by the likes of the teachers' unions that often seem
to think that they, and not the parents or the department or the
churches, should have the major say over our schools.
Quinn will
need to guard against that.
He'll also have his work cut out trying to
find truly representative parents instead of parents firmly attached to
the various interest groups.
The desired outcome of the forum is
that it will give clear guidance on how many of the country's primary
schools should remain under the patronage of the Catholic Church, and
how many should be transferred to other patrons, like the VEC or Educate
Together.
Quinn himself told RTE last week that a reduction in
the number of Catholic schools would benefit Catholic parents because
the remaining ones could be more truly Catholic, instead of the current
situation where they often fudge their ethos to keep non-practising
parents and non-practising teachers happy.
This indicates he
believes in the autonomy of denominational schools.
But I wonder if that
is really the case, because that autonomy can't be maintained if, in
the name of 'equality', their employment policies, their admissions
policies and what they can actually teach is compromised.
Therefore,
the denominational sector as a whole should insist on at least the
current level of autonomy being maintained before a single school is
handed over.
But Quinn also needs to recognise that a long road
lies ahead.
Every bishop is independent of every other bishop so far as
their schools go, and the parishes to which the schools are attached
also have a lot of autonomy in this matter.
Finally, when push
comes to shove, parents might suddenly discover that they value their
local Catholic school more than they thought.
In other countries,
church-run schools are extremely popular because usually they are very
good.
In general, churches educate kids better and more cheaply than states.
That's something else for our new Education Minister to bear in mind.