Madam, - Fr Séamus Murphy (Letters, April 2nd) is completely disingenuous in his discussion of faith in our schools.
Whatever way he may try to spin it, it remains the case that there has been, for many many years, a de facto delegation of control over our schools to the church in Ireland. Whether or not the State has - or should have - the right to educate all children within the State is beside the point in this context. The undeniable truth of the matter is that the church controls the vast majority of Irish schools today.
Fr Murphy's recourse to Article 42 of Bunreacht na hÉireann is absurd insofar as it presumes that parents today can exercise a real choice over who it is that educates their children. But when the vast majority of schools are controlled by the church, such a choice does not exist.
Does Fr Murphy seriously maintain that the "increased cultural and religious diversity" he so cherishes is best served by continued Catholic dominance over the administration of our primary and secondary education system? The fact that he goes on to mock the idea that all religions might be taught in an objective manner in schools and afforded parity of esteem renders his own, ostensible, position farcical.
Affording control of schools to the State would do nothing to undermine "parental rights", as he claims, and would serve only to remove church influence from one of the last areas of Irish civic life in which it exerts control. I look forward to the day when this happens.
While he may accuse others of "soft totalitarianism", Fr Murphy merely shows himself to be another chauvinist Catholic dogmatic, and demonstrates his own intolerance of an inclusive and multicultural Ireland. - Yours, etc,
OWEN CORRIGAN, Jesus College, Oxford.
Madam, - Fr Séamus Murphy is wrong to equate a desire for secular education with totalitarianism or as a move towards "more State control". Most of us who desire such a development would be horrified if religious practice and religious instruction were banned. All we hold is that, just as with many other aspects of life, its proper place is in the home and, in this case, the church, mosque or synagogue.
The current situation, where children of non-Catholic or atheist parents attending State-funded, but not State-managed, schools have to give precedence to those with baptismal certificates, is unjust. It is disingenuous to claim the non-Catholic children will not have religion foisted on them if they are successful in getting into State schools that are now under clerical management. What they will get is constant exposure to religious symbolism in corridors and other common school areas, and a clear message that they are children apart from the mainstream when they are asked to do something else while religious instruction is taking place.
The Constitution gave parents ultimate responsibility for educating their children. However, since the beginning, it has also recognised that parents do not, in general, have the resources to provide education directly. As a practical matter, laws were passed to ensure that children attended either private or State-provided schools. That a religious grouping should then have the management of over 90 per cent of those in the State sector is irrational and grossly unfair to those who want nothing to do with religion, either for themselves or for their children. - Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS McKENNA, Windy Arbour, Dundrum, Dublin 14.
Madam, - Séamus Murphy seems surprised that one might accept religious education in schools "provided no religion was taught as 'true' ". It would make no sense for State-funded schools to teach as true the world's many and mutually contradictory (and often internally inconsistent) religious beliefs, and there is no reason to think that any one religion should be favoured by the State. Parents who wish to instruct their children in a religion should be free to do so outside school with the support of their religious community. This would allow total freedom of choice for parents.
The virtual monopoly of the Catholic Church on primary education in the State deeply undermines parents' rights to give their children an education without the Catholic elements, should they so wish. To describe progressive moves to reduce the church's undemocratic control as "undermining of family and parental rights" and "at the expense of freedom" defies belief. - Yours, etc,
DAVID O'CALLAGHAN, Inglewood Drive, Clonsilla, Dublin.