Sectarian stance

CARDINAL Seán Brady’s insistence that the Catholic Church maintain control of schools in Northern Ireland vividly reminds us that the church remains part of the problem in this divided society.

Segregated education along sectarian lines, in the North’s case, is the same as segregated education along ethnic or racial lines which was accepted as recipe for strife in the US 50 years ago.

The cardinal’s weasel words that “a diverse range of schools was the mark of a mature, tolerant and reconciled society” are no more than a cynical cover to retain his church’s sectarian grip on the next generation, regardless of society’s deep divisions and the evils which flow there from.