Draft proposals made earlier this month by the advisory group of the Forum on primary school patronage, established by Ruairi Quinn, will have “a devastating effect on the Catholic identity of primary schools,” a lecturer at one of Ireland's most prominent teacher training colleges has warned.Rik Van Nieuwenhove, a theology lecturer in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, writing in this week's Irish Catholic, argues that the proposals made by the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism will involve the loss of Catholic patronage of 258 school “in a first phase.”
But he said, “The really sinister development is the assault on the Catholic ethos of the remainder of schools which will not be officially divested.” One of the Group's proposals was to dispense with Rule 68 of the Rules for National Schools, which state, ''a religious ethos should inform and vivify the whole work of the school.’’
This proposal, Mr Van Nieuwenhove said, is a product of the “secularist presupposition” that religious views are “a private matter that have no bearing on the school as a whole.”
Other proposals include setting aside several classes a week to teach primary school children about ethics and world religions, making the display of religious artefacts and art “inclusive of all belief systems in the school,” celebrating the festivals of different religious beliefs, and ensuring the communal prayers and hymns are “respectful of the beliefs and culture of all children in the school.”
Mr Van Nieuwenhove said that, while Christians, “should know about every religion, it is clear that the classes on world religion and ethics will be conducted from a non-religious perspective, i.e., a secularist perspective, and that is not a neutral perspective, but a deeply anti-religious one.”
The proposals to display religious symbols from a range of faiths and to celebrate the festivals of different religious faiths would involve having “a picture of Shiva Nataraja (a Hindu deity), Avolokiteshvara (a Buddhist deity), an Islamic prayer mat, and a star of David beside the crucifix.”
He also pointed out that children would be asked to celebrate a range of non-Christian feast days.
“Remember, we are talking about schools that allegedly remain Catholic, not about the schools that will transfer out of Catholic patronage.”
Mr Van Nieuwenhove added, “No worldview, be it religious or atheist, is neutral”. He says that “celebrating the differences of an allegedly more pluralist Ireland” will ultimately make, “all religions, in the end, a matter of indifference.”
“True inclusivity and pluralism is not standing for everything (and thus, ultimately: nothing). Rather true inclusivity is while being steeped in your own tradition, you engage in respectful dialogue with people of different traditions. This obviously presupposed that you first have a good knowledge of your own tradition.”
The Advisory Group's proposals, Mr Van Nieuwenhove said, would make it “very difficult for Catholic schools to emphasise Christianity in what is taught and in visual displays throughout the school.”
“Given the fact that transmission of faith no longer occurs in families but mainly in schools, this is a programme for the utter secularisation of Ireland,” he said.
He urged parents and grandparents to contact their TDs to make their views known.