State must be completely secular

NO one can help but applaud Enda Kenny’s speech to the Dail stating so clearly the proper position of the Catholic Church in relation to the civic power within our state.

Handsomely said as it was, it must be remembered that handsome is as handsome does.

Tom Paine, that fierce 18th century revolutionary, said: “As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to protect all conscientious professors thereof, and I know of no other business which government has to do therewith.”

In a true Republic, this must be the guiding principal of our Constitution on matters of religion. To attain this, we are going to have to entirely redraft our Constitution to remove from it any content that might be offensive to those of any religious conviction or none, beginning with the absurdly sectarian preamble and including the removal of any content whose inclusion has a doctrinal basis.

It also means drafting a Constitution that removes education from the control of any religious organisation. That our children should learn about religions within the school curriculum is right and proper. However, indoctrination (and I mean that word in its original sense) is the business of the appropriate clergy outside of the curriculum and on their own premises. It is not until the state is completely secularised in all its institutions shall we be able to rid ourselves of the appalling Faustian contract, made even before our state was born, that we can curb the power and influence of a religious organisation whose final loyalty is to a government that is outside of our country. On the present difficulties facing us on the economic front, there is another quotation from Paine that is appropriate. “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, will deserve the love of men and women.” This last I address to our government and all our politicians. May they have what used to be called the grit to tackle all the naysayers and special interest groups who believe that what they want supersedes the national interest.

Fergus O’Leary

Passage West, Co Cork