Irish Teacher: The greed of the Catholic Church never ends

Jennifer Horgan says if Jesus was alive today, he'd be outraged that a lot of money from the State will go into the Church’s coffers. That money is going in the wrong direction

Jennifer Horgan: Jesus would turn as quickly from the Church as from the stall-keepers

MY dad’s stroke three years ago changed his life completely.

For a start, he lives it in a wheelchair now. He has also lost the use of his hand and, with that, his ability to play golf, work, or drive. This Lent, he has given up sugar in his tea. I’ve tried to persuade him against it, but he’s been a devout Catholic all his life and he’s not about to stop any time soon.

It’s for people like my dad and those who have suffered most acutely, that I speak up against the conduct of the Catholic Church in Ireland. I’m not attacking religion or the religious. How could I? My dad could certainly do without anyone’s disdain.

Religion isn’t the problem here; it has more to do with power, control, and greed. If Jesus were a bishop or a senior member of the Catholic Church in Ireland right now, he’d be outraged by what’s happening in his name. He would turn from it as quickly as Jesus turned from the stall-keepers at Church, the hypocrites, and the Pharisees.

The process of divestment in education is finally happening — sort of. It’s being referred to as reconfiguration. Taken on its own, it is a positive thing. It’s a win for children, who deserve classrooms where all students are treated equally and given the same educational experience. However, there’s a devil in the detail.

Eight pilot schools will become multi-denominational in areas in Arklow, Cork, Athlone, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, and Youghal where there’s no multi-denominational option. This is part of the Government’s commitment to increase parental choice by offering 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2030.

Unfortunately, this pilot seems to have been negotiated behind closed doors. The church is working closely with only one patron, excluding others such as Educate Together and An Foras Pátrúnachta.

According to Educate Together: “From the limited information made available to date, it seems that school communities will only be given information about the community national school model, which, in the interests of transparency, choice, and fairness, is concerning.”

However, this isn’t the worst of it. In all honesty, I’d like to see Educate Together and the Education and Training Board system merge to create one cohesive State system. An Forás Pátrúnachta could also come under the same umbrella. When we boil the ethos of these schools down to their core, they all promote inclusion, equality, and respect. We need fewer divisions in our educational system, which will require us grown-ups to behave a little less like warring children.

My major concern relates to the money that will pass between Church and State. A lot of money from the State, the people, will go into the Church’s coffers. That money is going in the wrong direction.

We learned last week that all four religious congregations involved in running Ireland’s 10 Magdalene laundries have refused to contribute to a State fund to compensate those who worked in them.

When you think about it, these schools, run independently from the church, built from public contributions to the Church, are being rented back to educators, families, and children. Education Equality communications officer David Graham put it perfectly last week: “The State has apparently now entered into a 40-year commitment to pay the Catholic Church rent for the privilege of operating schools that have been built at public expense in the first place. The bishops clearly see school reconfiguration as a revenue-raising scheme rather than an opportunity to vindicate families’ human and constitutional rights.”

Alarmingly, this isn’t the only way the Church is benefitting financially from Irish children. In truth, they’ve been stealing from children for years. Dublin offers the least green space per child in the country and the church is contributing to further losses. It’s doing a wonderful job of rezoning its land from institutional to residential. It is quietly moving through the courts, selling off school pitches and green spaces to property developers at an unholy sum.

According to Emma Gilleece of Village magazine: “The Catholic Church owns €3.743bn of land and property in the State.” This is big money. However, they also owe a great deal under various redress schemes. The Village suggests that these assets could be liquidated to satisfy their financial liabilities but instead the Church is selling off the little spaces children have to play.

My dad, this Lent, is denying himself sugar in his tea. Meanwhile, the Church’s bank balance is going up, benefitting once again from the innocence of Ireland’s ordinary citizens.