Bishops need to restore integrity of Catholic teaching within its schools

After the recent same sex marriage referendum, Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin stated that the Church needed to learn some lessons. That must go down as the understatement of the century.

From a Catholic perspective the elephant in the room question is surely how to explain the fact that a country with a huge percentage of “Catholic” schools, could return such a vote.

Given the clear nature of Catholic teaching on this matter (which remains the same and is not subject to majority vote), an obvious answer is that Catholic schools are either not teaching Catholic beliefs, or teaching them inadequately.

One has to admit that some Catholic bishops ( in fairness not all - Bishop Smith of Meath gave excellent leadership ) were lukewarm at best in fighting their corner.

Compare and contrast them with their ideological opponents, where the likes of Aodhán O’Riordáin (secular fundamentalist, par excellance) unapologetically pushed his agenda at every opportunity.

Therein lies an issue which must be tackled by Archbishop Martin. Because Mr O’Riordáin was, believe it or not, a teacher in a “ Catholic “ school in Dublin. This is surely scandalous and doesn’t reflect very well on the Archbishops strength of leadership.

One would have thought that a one time teacher in a Catholic school, as a minimum requirement, would have been expected to refrain from campaigning for issues totally at variance with Catholic teaching.

Can I suggest that the Archbishop might look to the Diocese of San Francisco as a possible template for renewing the appalling state of the Catholic diocese of Dublin.

At present in San Francisco, Bishop Cordileone is fighting a titanic battle to restore the Catholic integrity of his diocese. Needless to say this battle has come at personal cost, as large elements of the Catholic political & liberal establishment, backed up by sections of the media, have launched a ferocious attack on the Bishop.

His crime is daring to insist on strong orthodox teaching in Catholic schools of actual Catholic teaching.

He is a very brave man indeed.

One only hopes that Archbishop Martin is made of equally strong stuff.

Eric Conway

Balreask village

Navan

Co Meath