Courtney McGrailStaff reporter
Ruairí Quinn was “clearly wrong” to propose abolishing religion classes from primary schools when he was minister for education, former Taoiseach John Bruton has said.
Mr Bruton also said it was erroneous to attribute falling education standards to the 30 minutes-per-day spent teaching children religion.
The former Fine Gael leader said religious instruction was “a vital part of education” and that “teachers need to believe what they are teaching”.
He claimed the absence of religious education in American schools has contributed to an “anything goes approach” that allows some “pastors to think it is a religious thing to burn the sacred books of other faiths”.
Describing communism and Nazism as “secular religions”, he said when “people ceased to believe that each human person was individually created by God” it was “all too easy to accept concentration camps, gulags, ethnic cleansing and the elimination of class enemies”.
Mr Bruton made the comments in his newly-published collection of essays and speeches, Faith in Politics. He said religion believers should get involved in politics to “promote Christian values” and the “secularist notion” that religion and politics should be kept separate is “simply unrealistic”.
“No Christian, and Catholics in particular, should be afraid to bring their beliefs into the public square,” Mr Bruton said.