Madam, – Fintan O’Toole makes the wholly unacceptable charge (Opinion, December 22nd) that Bishop Leo O’Reilly made dishonest claims in his article concerning Catholic schools on December 19th.
The bishop did nothing of the sort. He said that schools that exclude religious instruction are not neutral in their philosophy of life. They too espouse an ethos of their own. He went on to welcome the provision of such schools as providing for diversity of choice in the Irish education system.
Mr O’Toole bases his accusation of dishonesty on the clearly fallacious claim that “no one is talking about schools that exclude religious instruction”. Maybe Mr O’Toole has no interest in such schools but he shouldn’t equate himself with everyone, as he clearly doesn’t speak for parents who already send their children to such schools or parents who desire such schools for their children. Further, in recent weeks numerous correspondents with The Irish Times and in other media (in the Letters pages, online and in opinion pieces) have argued strongly for an end to Catholic patronage and the removal of religious instruction, images and practices from our schools.
How could Bishop O’Reilly deal with the future of patronage in Irish schools without addressing this issue? Rather than being dishonest, he was dealing fairly and openly with a complex situation. – Yours, etc,