Dear Editor, I write to offer a contrasting perspective to Rev. Patrick Seaver, who expressed the opinion that religion should be taken out of schools and that sacramental preparation should take place in a parish context (IC 06/07/2017).
I agree that parish-based formation is vital; by virtue of our Baptism, we are all called by God to contribute to the health of our parishes by active mission and apostolate. However, I believe a very valuable aspect of that mission is the preservation of our Catholic schools.
As a young primary school teacher, my experience in religious education and sacramental preparation has helped me appreciate the tremendous potential school-based religious education has for forming children in the Faith. I appreciate that the quality of that formation depends a great deal on the school and its teachers, but the capacity is there.
The huge advantage of religious education in schools is the space it affords children to ponder faith even outside the confines of the religion lesson. I have had children approach me with questions throughout the day and I have heard them talking about God over lunch. This happens because of the reminders of God in their environment.
In a parish-based programme, this scope is far more limited in comparison to the level of formation possible in a school across five days.
My questions here are these: if religious education were to be removed from schools, what opportunities would children have to think about God during school hours? Secondly, if they do not hear of God at home, will they hear of him at all in any positive way? Furthermore, in the midst of an increasingly secularised society where God is needed so badly, is it really in our children’s best interests to remove him from schools entirely? If anything, our children need more of God, not less.
Yours etc.,
Róisín O’Rourke,
Leitrim Village,
Co. Leitrim.
Condemning innocent to death
Dear Editor, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and others strive to impose abortion in Ireland on the grounds of rape, incest, and what is wrongly termed ‘fatal foetal abnormality’. In doing so, they would be condemning to death unborn innocent citizens of Ireland – innocently conceived – by the misdeeds of another. To condemn children with severe disabilities to death, they would likewise condemn people like Christy Brown – who despite his disability became a great writer and author.
Yours etc.,
Fr Con McGillicuddy,
Raheny,
Dublin 5.
‘Zero limit’ drink driving law draconian
Dear Editor, It is not easy to write this but the truth must be told and, for once, I actually agree with something your columnist Mary Kenny has written (IC 22/06/2017). She writes that it is veering towards the fanatical for there to be an “absolute and total ban” on having taken any amount of alcohol and then driving.
Her view that a moderate law should take all factors into consideration is common sense, something which is sadly missing from this and other Government policies today.
The proposal to introduce a ‘zero limit’ is unfair and draconian. It makes no allowance for people being people and, if introduced, does not guarantee anything other than social isolation for thousands of people in rural areas.
It takes away from Gardaí a level of discretion which, to my experience, they tend to use wisely.
Drunk-driving cannot apply to an individual who has had just one drink and is below the 50mg alcohol/100ml blood limit as it pertains.
Yours etc.,
Brian Mooney,
Clontarf, Dublin 3.
A break from all the bad news
Dear Editor, In these days when everyone is bewailing all the bad news prevailing in the media, may I just say how valuable my wife and I have found The Irish Catholic.
It is a breath of fresh air. It has been a constant boon to our house every week since we got married.
My wife, Maura, loves reading all the papers and The Irish Catholic is one paper which we both find always very interesting and balanced.
It is broad ranging and moderate in an era of extremism and narrow agendas.
Please keep up the good work. And thank you all.
Yours etc.,
Paul Wickham,
Baldoyle,
Dublin 13.
Bríd Smith’s argument is unconvincing
Dear Editor, I find the comments of Bríd Smith TD (IC 22/06/2017) regarding separation of Church and State unconvincing. Throughout history, states have sought to dominate the Church. Following independence our own state gave paltry sums towards providing for the destitute, the ill and compulsory education. Under resourced, overwhelmed by the needs and lacking in professional training, both religious and laity found themselves acting as first responders to the poverty resulting from the independence struggle, civil-war divisions and an unjust economic relationship with our trading partner the UK, which persisted until our accession to the EEC in 1973.
Far from the Church having a privileged position in education, the curriculum was dictated by the State. For the first 50 years this was undisguised nationalism, thereafter it aimed at turning us into willing work-slaves, where our relationship with God is viewed as marginal, while marriage and family life must take a back seat to careerism.
In the case of the mother and baby homes, let us ask ourselves: Could those in charge have done any better with the resources available? At that time did anyone else give a better service? Are we doing any better today, given the child-care scandals?
Yes as Catholics and citizens we have been complicit in these government policies, however I’m getting tired of all perceived woes since independence being dumped upon us.
Yours etc.,
Gearóid Duffy,
Lee Road, Cork.
Dear Editor, Your correspondent Bríd Smith TD writes (IC 22/06/2017) to confirm her assertion that “the Church should be put in the dustbin of history”. Given the Catholic and other Churches’ brave, unflinching protection of unborn children in their mother’s womb and Ms Smith’s pro-abortion campaigning, her anti-Catholic rhetoric should surprise no one.
Ms Smith utilises abuses and allegations from industrial schools, laundries, mother and baby homes of 50 years ago, to try and silence Church opposition to her abortion-on-demand policies. The truth, of course, is that successive Irish governments, Irish society, families and citizens, were happy to dump social problems on the Church structures to deal with, while others looked away. Nonetheless, past shortcomings and abuses afford pro-abortion campaigners a handy stick with which to beat pro-life opposition in 2017.
Ms Smith cites “barbarity” and “unspeakable cruelty” as the Church’s legacy. Generations of Irish people, and others abroad, who benefited from schools, hospitals and services built, without personal enrichment by Catholic religious, will differ.
Yours etc.,
Oliver Maher,
Harold’s Cross, Dublin, 6.
Dear Editor, Bríd Smith TD claims that she believes in a system “where people will not be homeless or hungry and where the State takes responsibility for its citizens”. I am amazed that she made this statement when it is evident that the State is incapable of so doing and is reliant on Church bodies to carry out this work. She goes on to refer to Magdalen laundries, mother and baby homes, etc. and the cruelty involved therein, but has made no reference to the fact that the State completely abrogated its responsibility regarding these places and only for the religious orders these people would have been on the street.
The cruelty and barbarity she refers to sadly was the norm in previous times and, let it be said, not just by religious orders. My aunt told me of the cruelty involved in the small rural school she had attended, by the master and mistress, and I have heard many such stories from others.
The legacy of the Catholic Church is that very many of the people now vilifying it received their education and health care from its members, and it certainly cannot be compared with the lack of care provided to date by the State. What about the many children in its care who have died, have no proper care and assistance? It is really unacceptable to see the vilification of the very many religious who spent their lives looking after the weak and vulnerable in society and even ploughed their salaries into maintaining these services.
Yours etc.,
Mary Stewart,
Ardeskin, Donegal Town
