Archbishop: It is not the state’s job to raise children

THE Archbishop of Dublin has warned that giving the state greater responsibility for children will not automatically ensure improved child protection and increased child rights.

In a nod to the upcoming Children’s Rights Referendum, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin pointed to the state’s poor track record in caring for the vulnerable: “The record of the state in childcare in Ireland is not one that we can be proud of.”

He cited the health service, prison service and the state’s ongoing failure to provide quality care to children in their care as examples of “the weakness of state management”.

“There have been many cases where parental neglect has resulted in serious damage to children. We need mechanisms to ensure that the rights of children are adequately protected. But in general it would be wrong to think that simply moving responsibility from parents to the state would provide a more effective answer. ‘It is not the state’s job to bring up children; it is the job of parents.’ That is not the comment of a Pope, but of President Bill Clinton,” Archbishop Martin said.

“The record of the state in childcare in Ireland is not one that we can be proud of. The new government clearly recognises the urgency of addressing this serious blemish. The measures needed to address this challenge will require huge effort and go way beyond the creation, simply, of new structures.”

Archbishop Martin made the comments at the Mater Dei Institute for Education where he was speaking as part of an Ethics for All public lecture series.

In recent weeks, Archbishop Martin has spoken of the huge challenges facing a Church that is losing numbers and influence, but yesterday he warned that the Church should not just adapt to “overall cultural change in society”, adding that “the Church is not on the way to extinction”.

“The Church lives and acts within the cultural situation of time and place... The Church lives ‘inculturated’ and inculturation is a positive thing.

“However, as I had occasion recently to recall at a lecture in Cambridge, the paradoxical thing is that the farther the Church goes in adapting to the culture of the times, the greater the danger is that it will no longer be able to confront the culture of the time.”

Archbishop Martin also called on parents to play a more vocal role in the ongoing debate around educational choice, admitting that the current lack of “real representation of parent’s interests” was due to the predominance of the Catholic model of education where such representation was not encouraged.

“Curiously, the group which bears the fundamental constitutional responsibility for educational choice — parents — is the least organised and, therefore, the most difficult to consult on a national level.

“But parents are the crucial factor on the level of local communities and they must be protagonists in the political choice of the future and should be encouraged to take an active part in the ongoing debate,” he said.

“It is important that parents become active in the process of determining what kind of pluralism they wish.”