Catholic children should prepare for their sacraments outside school
Since his appointment a few years ago, he has seemed bent on emulating his distant predecessor, Jonathan Swift, in his provocative public comments.
Last year, he refused to attend a Government reception in honour of Cardinal Connell. The Dean objected to an invitation issued jointly in the names of Bertie Ahern and Celia Larkin.
Before that, he made senior Church of Ireland figures wince by inviting Archbishop Connell to allow Masses to be celebrated in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Although it sounded like a modest proposal, it was, in mafia parlance, an offer the Archbishop couldn't refuse. When Archbishop Connell did decline the proposal, privately, the Dean went public with a statement of “regret” to the media. That he did so on December 23 was damaging to all sides. Christmas is a time when larger-than-usual numbers attend church, but all talk of goodwill and reconciliation rang hollow in the light of the inter-denominational spat that was unleashed.
Critics would accuse the Dean of courting controversy as an end in itself. But a fairer view would be that he doesn’t always see the difference between challenging people, which Christian leaders should try to do, and provoking people, which they should never do.
Contrary to received wisdom however, it’s better to be tactless than mute. In individualistic societies such as ours, people have become so convinced of the rectitude of their opinions that it would take a nuclear bomb to shift them. And that’s why people like the Dean are needed. Not because they are always right, but because they always make us think.
His most recent intervention, on the Dunboyne Gaelscoil controversy, is a case in point. The principal of Gaelscoil Thulach na nÓg in Dunboyne, Tomás Ó Dúlaing, was dismissed after a four-month row over whether matters of doctrine such as Communion should be dealt with during or after school hours.
The Gaelscoil is inter-denominational, which means the different doctrines of all the denominations are taught in the classroom. But the principal objected to preparing children for sacraments during school hours, and parents are sharply divided on the issue.
Dean McCarthy has intervened to say that religion class is for religious education, not preparation for communion or confirmation. This should take place outside of school time, he believes.
More controversially, he says the Catholic Church is staying quiet on the issue because, if preparation for the sacraments took place outside the school curriculum, the numbers going forward for the sacraments would be greatly reduced.
“The Church seems happy that, instead, almost everyone should be prepared for nothing more than rites of puberty by teachers who may never darken the church doors themselves,” the Dean says.
As usual, Dean McCarthy has said his piece in a rather blunt way. But he has raised some important questions which go far beyond the problem of whether children should be prepared for Catholic sacraments within the normal class time of inter-denominational schools.
The Catholic Church should examine whether, even in Catholic-run schools, children should be prepared for the sacraments during school hours. Many teachers, especially the more religiously committed, are frustrated by the lack of interest shown by some parents towards preparing children for the sacraments. Their frustration is well-grounded. Some parents want their children in Catholic schools but are not interested in the religious ethos. Teachers have to instruct children in a faith which is not practiced at home, which is a bit like teaching children the rules of hurling without ever letting them on a playing field.
While these parents may argue that they have no choice but to send their children to a Catholic school, it is strange that they insist on putting their children forward for communion and confirmation. But they do it because they don’t want their children to be the odd ones out, or denied the big party, the new clothes and the money.
The Catholic Church allows this because it is engaging in a balancing act. Firstly, it believes that the sacraments do good in themselves; even if neither children nor parents appear to understand the full significance of what is going on. And secondly, it continues to pin its hopes on the little bit of contact that the sacraments bring. Baptism, Church weddings, Communion and Confirmation allow the church to stay in touch with people, say some priests. In support of this, they observe that more Catholics than not still practice their faith in this country. They also worry that, if you make parents and children attend preparatory sessions before getting the sacraments, many lukewarm believers may abandon the faith altogether.
Would that be so bad? The Church obviously feels a duty to go after its “lost sheep”, but it must also know that the presence of too many apathetic Christians in its schools will bring down the standard of religious formation for everyone. Yet if the Church wants to reach the indifferent as well as the committed, there has to be compromise on this.
But preparing children for the sacraments is a different matter. This is a serious business, and anything other than a faith-filled teaching environment makes a mockery of the whole thing. And if this is a problem in Catholic schools, surely it’s even more of a problem in inter-denominational schools where a percentage of the children definitely don’t subscribe to the Catholic faith.
The politically-correct view of education argues that inter-denominational schooling is good, because there is more that unites the Christian churches than divides them. There is some truth in that. But inter-denominational education also runs the risk of ignoring, or downplaying, the real points of difference between the churches. It’s easy to gloss over points of doctrinal difference just for the sake of being polite, or because you’re a bit fuzzy on the distinctions yourself. But if you do that, you are really telling your students that their religion doesn’t matter.
This isn’t just a problem for the Catholic Church. It is a problem for all Christian churches with carefully-defined beliefs. Only very low-church Anglicans, or catch-all groups like the Unitarians, will be happy with a fudge.
The Catholic Church, as the market leader, should make the first move towards solving the problem. By all means it should insist on Catholic doctrine in Catholic schools, but it should make sacramental preparation a job for the parishes. This would cost time, money and effort, but children would be prepared better for the sacraments. And it might also take some of the controversy out of schooling.
Dean McCarthy may have done all the churches a service by starting this debate.
