Madam, – Mary Raftery (Opinion, December 15th) writes that “as a society, we have chosen to give these bishops enormous and unaccountable power over our education system”. This situation would be viewed as farcical if it weren’t so horrifying. As a nation we must immediately move to terminate this relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and education.
To allow any representatives of an organisation that appears to have facilitated the worldwide systemic molestation of innocent children to remain in a position of authority over any child can only be judged as an abhorrent failure on our part as a society by future generations. If we vacillate or allow the church to fudge this issue then we, as a nation, should feel complicit in any acts that are perpetrated in the future.
It is time to make the revulsion we should all feel at the litany of abuse detailed in recent reports felt. I urge my fellow citizens to contact their local TD to press for the revocation of the rights of the Catholic Church to any area of education in Ireland not directly connected to religious education. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Theo Dorgan (Opinion, December 14th) states that Archbishop Diarmuid Martin "knows that a radical change is needed in how his church understands its relationship to the people it purports to serve". If this is so, how can Mr Dorgan explain why Archbishop Martin has not called for the ordination of women, and has not stated that Humanae Vitaeis no longer part of the teaching of the Catholic Church? The archbishop's commitment to change must be judged on these issues, not by "his words and his suffering countenance on our screens". – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Your columnist (Teacher’s Pet, December 15th) expresses the view that the Murphy and Ryan reports have stirred up a debate on school patronage on which the teacher unions have been quiet. Far from it.
The view of the INTO in relation to school patronage and indeed the teaching of religion in primary schools is well known and has been published in this paper on several occasions. The INTO was one of the first groups to recognise the challenges posed by an outdated system of school patronage and sought debate and discussion on new models of patronage through a forum on school governance.
The union recognised the limited potential of denominational schools to fully accommodate Ireland’s new diversity and the limitations of the exchequer to provide an unlimited choice of school types. In that context we argued that the concept of a community national school offered a good way forward where separate or common religious education programmes or none could be provided during the school day in accordance with parental choice.
Earlier this year, the incoming general secretary of the INTO said that fully implementing the recommendations of the Ryan report should be a priority for Irish society. She highlighted the need to ensure the full and uniform implementation of the Children First guidelines in all schools and said this would require training for all teachers, boards of management and others working in schools with children. To date, information seminars have been provided to some school staff, a wholly inadequate response. – Yours, etc,