Irish Examiner view: Catholic schools and the Constitution at odds over sex education

Catholic bishops on sex education want to continue to teach against the provisions and protections our Constitution offers 

Life is a process of change and a process of accepting and embracing that change. Individuals can, and do, embrace change at their own pace. Societies, through amendments to the Constitution in our case, collectively set the pace for change. Next month marks the sixth anniversary of a hugely necessary and positive change.

The Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2015 changed the Constitution to facilitate marriage between people of the same gender. Until that law is repealed, unimaginable in today's circumstances, that is the final considered position of this society.

Six years after that fundamental, humane recognition the Irish Bishops Conference has endorsed revised sex education guidelines for Catholic primary schools. Those guidelines include the stipulation that the Catholic Church’s teaching on “marriage between a man and a woman cannot be omitted". Essentially, the bishops want to continue to teach against the provisions and protections our Constitution offers — not to mention the democratically expressed wish of this society. 

This is a society in transition, a transition more advanced than many of the once central institutions, religious or political, may imagine. This is no longer a grey area, a decision has been reached. It is very difficult to see how that decision can be routinely challenged in publicly-funded schools.

Religious freedom is an absolute right but that cannot, in our public schools' system at least, extend to a kind of philosophical sedition. This document may well have unintended consequences — renewed consideration of how school patronage is decided and a re-energised move towards public schools that better reflect the diversity of this society.