Catholic primaries ‘not grim places of indoctrination’

THE HEAD of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association in Ireland has signalled his unhappiness with the “unbalanced debate” around Catholic primary schools in public discourse, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

In his address to the association last week Fr Tom Deenihan appealed to members of school boards of management to challenge the popular view that Catholic schools “are grim places of indoctrination which parents are being forced to send their children to against their will.”

He warned that the 23,000 people who serve on a voluntary basis on the boards of management of Catholic primary schools throughout the country are tired of “bearing the brunt” of politicians’ criticisms, in particular those who target faith schools regularly.

According to the priest, from the Diocese of Cork & Ross in southern Ireland, public discourse has solely focused on divesting, baptism certificates, the now abolished Rule 68 (which said “religious spirit should inform and vivify the whole work of a school”), inclusion, and what has been described as “church control” and more recently “indoctrination”.

Fr Deenihan said that a false  narrative had been created that implied that you must be baptised to gain entry to a Catholic primary school.“Nearly every primary school in the country has students enrolled who are not Roman Catholic,” he argued.