BRIAN McCLINTON,
Sir, - The Dunboyne row is an even bigger issue than Breda O'Brien asserts (Opinion, August 3rd). First, it proves that religion remains a divisive force, a potent instrument of the alienation of Irish people from each other. This truth may have been less obvious in the Irish Republic in the modern era when the percentage of non-Catholics is negligible; but how would a united Ireland with 25 per cent non-Catholics deal with such disputes if they were multiplied a hundredfold?
Secondly, how can the Irish Republic demand a more pluralist North if it fails to set an example? How can it convincingly demonstrate that the Republic is not a "cold place for Protestants" if even so-called interdenominational schools insist on teaching Catholic doctrine to all children? Thirdly, why are the rights of the child always forgotten when it comes to religion in Ireland? Children are individual people, not private possessions of their parents or fodder to swell church membership. Education should not be about bringing up a child within any particular faith. It is about the opportunities for a child to learn about many different systems of beliefs and attitudes of mind, so that he or she can make a reasoned choice among them.
Thus children should learn about religion in school, but on a comparative basis or in the context of examining various alternative belief systems. They should certainly not be required to participate in religious rituals, which have no place in education.
Finally, Ms O'Brien regards religion as a positive force in socialising people into "values which offer some opposition to a dominant consumerist ethos". She needs to explain, then, what went so badly wrong in America, which is both the most religious and also the most consumerist of Western societies. America proves that God and Mammon are not necessarily deadly enemies, whereas Ireland seems to prove that God and love are. - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN McCLINTON, Editor, The Ulster Humanist, Riverside Drive,
Lisburn, Co Antrim.
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Sir, - Journalists, I suppose, write to provoke. This is surely what John Waters was doing in his two articles on the Dunboyne gaelscoil dispute. Catholics may believe their religion is "uniquely truthful", but they also believe in ecumenism. I am sure there are not many Muslims in the school; indeed, we can safely bet that apart from the Catholics, the rest are mainly Church of Ireland (Anglican).
We have come to a very wide agreement with the Anglicans since Vatican II. The first joint commission concluded in 1981 that there was no doctrinal bar to unity. Most recently, the third commission has produced a profound agreement on "the gift of authority".
The agreements on the doctrine of the Eucharist and ministry have been fully endorsed by the highest instances on both sides. The Pope even says that it is "a source of joy" for us RC clergy to be able occasionally to offer Holy Communion to Anglicans and others. - Yours, etc.,
Rev EOIN DE BHALDRAITHE, Bolton Abbey, Moone, Co Kildare.