For Bishop Donal McKeown, the ruling highlights the rights of parents and the distinctive mission of Catholic education:
“Christians – like others – have the right to have their children educated in conformity with their own beliefs. And it will be interesting to see whether it will be recognised that Catholic schools have a distinctive ethos which goes much beyond the teaching of RE” he told The Irish Catholic.
While the full legislative and policy implications of the Supreme Court ruling will take time to emerge, Bishop Alan McGuckian has said that Catholics must also respond to a deeper cultural claim – the idea that Christianity should have no particular priority in the life of schools at all:
“I want to challenge the principle, that people of a secular mindset assert; namely that Christianity should be given no priority in all schools. That principle is simply ungrounded, unreasonable and illogical.”
“Those who seek to have Christianity sidelined in our shared society are cutting off their noses to spite their face. The very values and principles on which they base their case are rooted in western civilisation which owes a great debt to the teachings of Christianity.”
He roots this conviction not in nostalgia, but in the concrete contribution Christianity has made to modern ideas of freedom and human dignity:
“Christianity and the Judaeo Christian worldview, provides the value-based foundation for all that is good in western society and is deeply embedded within Human Rights legislation. The idea of the rights of the individual to be free from coercion, all the freedoms contained in the various charters of human rights, are based on and stem from the biblical teaching that every single person is created ‘in the image and likeness of God’. (Gen. 1:26,27) Enlightenment thinkers of a more secular viewpoint have built on that fundamentum, and, in many ways, they have served us well, but they grounded and built their insights on underlying Christian values that protect the dignity of every human person.”
Bishop McKeown stressed that what is at issue is the statutory Core Curriculum, not the whole lived experience of Religious Education in Catholic schools:
“It is important to note that the legal decision refers to the statutory Core Curriculum. And there is widespread agreement that this is due to be reviewed. But the core curriculum should not be confused with the much wider range of topics -including other world religions – which are included in the Grow in Love textbook.”
Bishop McGuckian notes that many people are asking what all this will mean in practice:
“Many people have asked me; while it is explicitly noted in the judgement that this ruling applies to a controlled grant-aided primary school and does not apply to Catholic schools, what difference is this Supreme Court ruling going to make to the provision of Religious Education across NI schools more widely? Is religion being driven out of schools? More specifically, some are asking ‘Is Christianity being driven out of schools?’”
He acknowledges that some are reading the judgment as a call for RE that treats all religions in exactly the same way, with no special place for Christianity. But he points out that the judgment itself states clearly:
“Denominational religious education and collective worship is not prohibited in Catholic maintained schools.”
“Other world religions should also be respected, and they also have a contribution to make in an increasingly diverse multi-cultural and multi-faith society. However, it should be recognised that Christianity, centrally and uniquely, has provided the framework of values that underpin western society. In schools across the western world, Christianity should, indeed, be given priority in our educational systems and everybody, including those of other faiths and none, should recognise and welcome this because of its foundational importance.”
Rather than seeing the judgment as a sign that ‘Christianity is being driven out of schools,’ the bishops are inviting the faithful to see this moment as a call to deeper reflection, stronger advocacy and more visible holiness – so that Catholic schools, in Bishop McKeown’s words, may continue “to offer hope for the future and inspiring saintly role models”.