Bishop accuses State of diluting role of Church in schools

THE Government was accused of diluting the role of religion in education by what the Catholic bishops said was a “policy assumption” that all secondary schools should be multi-denominational.

Less than half of secondary school pupils are now educated in Church-run schools and a similar situation is developing in primary schools, according to the chair of the Bishops’ Commission on Education, Bishop Leo O’Reilly.

He criticised the treatment of the Church in the Government’s new codes of practice on planning for schools which he said “relegate them to the past” and “consign their role in school ownership to history”.

The Code of Practice on the Provision of Schools was published earlier this month and only has one mention of the role of religious patrons who run schools.

Bishop O’Reilly is concerned leases for schools, agreed three years ago between the Department of Education and religious orders that run the schools, have still not been finalised.

The leases were agreed after the department adopted a policy of purchasing all school sites and then leasing them back to the religious orders.

“The Department of Education in consultation with the patrons produced a draft lease agreement in 2004 and despite repeated approaches by patrons and management of schools since then a final lease has not been agreed and published,” Bishop O’Reilly said in a speech to the Parnell summer school in Wicklow yesterday.

He said the Church bodies which provide the education are not consulted about planning for providing schools. “The patron bodies are the educational providers on the ground. They have served the State well in the past and we believe continue to serve it well. As key partners in education they need to be consulted on the provision of new schools.

“There seems to be a policy assumption in the Department of Education that every new school at second level should be multi-denominational.”

Bishop O’Reilly also called on students who got their Leaving Cert results to consider a religious life.

“I have no doubt that God is calling young women and men of this generation to give their lives to spreading the Gospel and our society needs this service too,” he said.