In his address to this year's graduates of Mater Dei Institute, the Archbishop outlined some of the challenges these graduates would face in the field of education and specifically Catholic education.
Speaking of the general context of these challenges, he said the very difficult economic climate within which choices have to be made and decisions taken, meant that the educational sector had to accept that austerity is the order of the day.
But that didn’t prevent a discussion taking place on the definition of austerity and the allocation of resources. “For that discussion to be fruitful”, he said, “We need in Irish society a ‘new ethics of austerity’.
Such ethics would produce a focused reflection on addressing factors which could have long-term positive outcomes he suggested. It would identify the most vulnerable and see that they do not become the long term-excluded; it would foster a sense of common purpose rather than focusing only on sectoral interests; and it would ensure there was a forward-looking policy.
Ireland, the Archbishop, who is patron of Mater Dei, suggested, could be a leader in the field of education, if it truly invested creatively in its future generations.
Recognising that as graduates of a Catholic institute of education many of those graduating would in their future careers be involved in religious education, he told them, “Your formation in the Christian faith and in the social tradition of the Church will have given you some inspiration and motivation towards that special care for the poor and disadvantaged".
He said this must be a mark of Catholic education, the "belief that every young boy or girl is a child of God who must be helped realise the unique God-given talents they possess and to place those talents at the service of the common good.”
As Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Martin is patron of 470 primary schools and 185 secondary schools in Dublin. In that capacity, he has been to the forefront of the ongoing debate on patronage and the role of the Catholic Church in Irish school system.
Referring to the ongoing process of diversification in school patronage, the Archbishop who is patron of over ninety percent of the primary schools in his diocese, regretted that the process was moving too slowly.
“In the future in a more pluralistic educational system which we see evolving (if perhaps too slowly) the place of religious education and of Catholic schools has to be a place shaped, not by ideological turf fighting, but one in which the particular excellence of the Catholic tradition earns recognition by what it does”, he said.
He warned that the Catholic school has the right to protect its specific ethos and to provide education within the fullness of that ethos, but also warned that it should never become a factor of division or exclusion within society.
“Christians do not form a sect which is cut off from the realities of the world”, he said and added that the Catholic school, “within the pluralist educational system which is evolving in our society, must ... be a driving force for ... dialogue and interaction with other schools.”
Healthy rivalry, he suggested is one thing, but further fragmentation is another and “could easily be utilised by those who use the sophisticated term pluralist to mean building glass walls of division”.
He concluded by commenting that these are great times to be a teacher and great times to build a renewed educational framework.