Eamon Delaney: Targeting of schools' chaplains is latest sally in Labour's secular crusade

The poet Seamus Heaney was buried this last week in a moving Catholic ceremony. He was not especially Catholic and although deeply spiritual he was sceptical about religion. 

But, like so many of us, the poet was reared in a Catholic atmosphere and the culture of that faith still informed the rituals of his life and death. 

It is the same with the rest of the country, where, despite the retreat of Catholicism as a powerful influence, and despite the advance of secularism and multiculturalism, the ethos of Catholicism still remains as a spiritual and civic framework. 

Regardless of actual 'belief', we are happy to avail of the Catholic rituals of baptisms, weddings and funerals to mark the significant moments in our lives.

Nominally, Catholic schools are still the main educators in our society and the church still has a key role in our hospitals, even if it is nothing like the hands-on involvement of before. 

But the reality is that the church is on a retreat from Irish life, on all levels.

However, it's not a quick enough retreat for some, and Aodhan O Riordain TD of the Labour Party has now called for a cut to chaplaincy services in VECs and community schools. 

He believes that the State should not be spending €9m for these faith-based counsellors, when there are cuts in other areas, such as the cut in guidance counsellors.

The Dublin TD's statement focuses entirely on the financial aspects of his proposal. 

But Mr O Riordain is being coy here, for he is on record as being probably the most aggressive secularist in a party which seems determined to push Catholicism out of Irish public life.

Some time ago, Mr O Riordain wanted senior civil servants screened for their religious (ie Catholic) views, before dropping the idea. 

A strong pro-choice advocate on abortion, he was caught on a sting tape lamenting the conservative attitudes of Irish people, especially in Monaghan, where he despaired of the alleged "latent homophobia"' of some of the locals.

An outspoken liberal, Mr O Riordain argues passionately on issues concerning gays and immigrants, all of which resonates with a certain middle-class Labour base. 

Many voters might prefer to hear more about getting the yoke of higher taxes off their backs, but such issues also distract from the economic pain, and from the opinion poll lows.

But the wider public will also see this proposal as a further determination to push religion out of public life, and Fianna Fail Education spokesperson Charlie McConalogue has described it as the latest front in the Labour Party's Culture War against religion. 

The plan was "typically myopic and mean-spirited" he said, since it comes so soon after the dismantling of the school counsellor system. 

It showed, he added, a shocking disregard for the effect that these decisions are having on vulnerable students.

As a school teacher, one would expect Deputy O Riordain to understand that the chaplaincy service in these institutions is more about student support than anything else, said Mr McConalogue, and this is a fair point. 

The chaplain is not some Holy Joe, proselytising figure burning candles. 

It is, basically, emotional and counselling support, with a 'religious-lite' background. 

Indeed, such is the timidity of the current church that when I went on a pre-marriage course – mandatory for a church wedding – I was amazed at its lack of a Catholic ethos.

Mr O Riordain's proposal is thus especially short-sighted, precisely because the Government has removed the guidance counsellors. 

The chaplains have been filling the gap and thus taking on a more important pastoral support role than ever before.

But might this be what is annoying Mr O Riordain and his secular friends? 

Are they upset that the religious might benefit from a cut in another area?

Certainly, it is hard to see why else one could propose another cut in the same area of student help that your Government has just cut. 

If Mr O Riordain really wanted savings, he could consult with the powerful teachers' unions about pay and benefits.

But no, it seems that, as Deputy McConalogue put it, "such considerations take a back seat when it comes to the Labour Party's prosecution of their Culture War". 

And it is the same war that is going on in the UK and other countries where secularists and humanists are determined to hound the church, any church, out of a public sphere from which they are already retreating.

And yet the broader public do not have to accept this war on their faith and traditions. 

Which is why Fianna Fail and Fine Gael – and most especially FG rebels like Lucinda Creighton – could find some very willing support, if they stood up to this secular crusade.