Cathal BarryChurch is urged to ensure faith in school
Some young teachers say they feel “intimidated” working in Catholic schools in Dublin when they raise concerns about the schools’ commitment to its Catholic ethos.
A number of teachers who spoke to The Irish Catholic claimed the problem was widespread and insisted that many faith-based schools are Catholic in name only.
The teachers, who do not wish to be named because of concerns that they may be further targeted, said they felt such concerns were not taken seriously by many principals and senior teachers in some schools.
One teacher, in a school in north Co. Dublin, said the atmosphere in the staff room has left her disheartened.
“I became a teacher in a Catholic school so that I didn’t have to hide my faith, that I could talk about it openly and be who I am”. However, she said her experiences with some other teachers in the Catholic sector have made her reticent to do so.
Hostile
Claiming that many of her colleagues were openly “anti-Catholic” and hostile to the Church, she said many of her suggestions to improve faith formation within the school were met with “eye-rolling”, before being “brushed off” as irrelevant by more senior colleagues.
“I don’t know how much more secularised we can be. We are pretty much just doing first Holy Communion and Confirmation and there is very little in between.
“We are barely just Catholic. Something has to change. It’s come to a tipping point,” she warned. Another teacher in a prominent Catholic school in south Dublin said he even felt “oppressed” by the stifling atmosphere in the school community.
“You feel oppressed because of the attitude there is towards faith, and the Catholic faith in particular. That creates a fear of sharing your views. There is a fear of fully expressing and fully living the Faith,” he said.
He also spoke of being made feel “embarrassed” and “isolated” at times because of his Catholic faith.
“That’s the opposite of what a Catholic school should be,” he said, “it should be a centre for sharing and living the beauty of the Faith but if you believe that you are actually afraid to do or to say it”.
“Catholic schools are failing in their responsibility,” he said.
Indifferent
Yet another teacher described the attitude towards faith from many teachers in Catholic schools as “indifferent”.
“The school I work in is Catholic, but it’s more in a nominal sense. It’s not seen as a priority.
He said that with regard teaching religion, some teachers have a very “flippant” attitude.
“It’s almost [taught] to get it done, get it out of the way and leave more time for maths or English”.
He also said that, in his experience, prayer was noticeably absent in many Catholic schools.
Dr John Murray of The Iona Institute said the teachers’ remarks came as a “shock”.
However, he said he “was not surprised in one sense because of the increasing secularisation in Ireland”.
“I would encourage those teachers to be courageous. We are not supposed to hide our light, we are supposed to let our light shine.
“Catholic schools should be allowed to be Catholic and the people who work there should be allowed to be Catholic. It’s a matter of freedom, dignity, honesty and integrity,” he said.