Sir, – John A Murphy (November 12th) proposes that the concept of a Catholic ethos in a Catholic school is pretty much meaningless since the great majority of the pupil's time is taken up learning the non-religious academic curriculum which has nothing to do with Catholic doctrine. His point about the content of the academic curriculum is true but, in my opinion, his overall interpretation is mistaken. Surely the point as regards Catholic ethos is not the content taught but how it is taught and the atmosphere in which it is taught.
Being a Catholic has relatively little to do with grasping esoteric concepts such as transubstantiation, virgin birth and so on, but it has everything to do with living life in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ, ie living your life, in accordance with God’s wishes, in a loving, forgiving, non-aggressive, compassionate, generous, honest, just, helpful, modest, frugal, mindful, optimistic and responsible manner. All aspects of the administration and the teaching in a Catholic school should be informed by these values. The children learn about these values in their formal Catholic religion class and see them in action in the general school activities. This is what I understand to be a Catholic ethos.
Of course I accept that the Catholic ethos will overlap substantially with the Church of Ireland ethos because of their common Christianity but some of the values I listed are interpreted in significantly different flavours in the Catholic and Protestant traditions. The Catholic ethos will even significantly overlap with the ethos in a secular Irish school because most of the values we all share are inherited from our common European Christian heritage. But I have no doubt that a Catholic ethos is real and can be implemented in a Catholic school. – Yours, etc,
WILLIAM REVILLE,
Waterfall,
Co Cork.
Sir, – The debate about Catholic schools is interesting because it has concentrated my mind on the question of what a Catholic is. Am I a Catholic because my parents had me christened before I reached the use of reason? Of course not. I am a Catholic only when I live a life that is in accordance with the rules of the Roman Catholic Church. With this definition there are very few Catholics in Ireland – they may be Christians or see themselves as Christians but they are not Roman Catholics. The prevalence of contraception, divorce, approval of gay marriage, etc, clearly demonstrates this. The key question therefore is why Irish people insist on wrongly and dishonestly describing themselves as Roman Catholic when asked in a census or elsewhere. Only when we find clarity in this regard will we be able to solve issues like schooling. – Yours, etc,
SEAN O’SULLIVAN,
Crossabeg,
Co Wexford.