Fr Paul Clayton-Lea
Despite the turbulence and pressure surrounding the Church in recent decades the vast majority of Irish Catholic parents and many non-Catholic ones too, remain strongly attached to the choice of Catholic schools for their children. This confidence and determination of today’s young parents to defend and maintain their bond with Catholic schools (as is evident from repeated failed attempts from government and other agencies to weaken or break that link) speaks well for their own personal experience of education in a Catholic school. If it had not been a largely positive and enriching experience for such parents, it is hardly likely they would want it for their own children. While never having been a parent myself I have had extensive involvement and interaction with our schools throughout my life as a student and a teacher, as a chaplain and parish priest. Overall I feel very fortunate to have had a life of now almost 72 years bookended by Catholic education.
Education
My first encounter with Catholic education began over 67 years ago with the Daughters of Charity in their infant school in Drogheda, Co. Louth. It then continued with the same order in London in St Anne’s co-educational PS next door to Westminster Cathedral where I memorably received a traditional tap on the cheek during my Confirmation ceremony from the late Cardinal John Heenan. I then received something more than a tap on the cheek from the Christian Brothers on returning to Ireland for my final couple of years in primary school education. It was my first but sadly not last taste of a leather strap. The Brothers may not have been quite as gentle as the Daughters of Charity in their administration of discipline but in addition to the painful, leathery incentive to work hard and behave, they also provided a soothing cup of cocoa and a currant bun on cold winter mornings in the school yard to the great appreciation of the ever-hungry boys who filled the classrooms. There was often a ratio of forty pupils to one teacher which helps explain if not always excuse the physical discipline that was believed in those days to be essential to maintaining order and attention.
Thanks to the common denominator – which was being part of a Catholic school with its shared culture, faith and traditions – there was always a distinct sense of ‘family’ regardless of the school or country”
Later still and back in London I enjoyed the multicultural experience of the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Camberwell where thanks to my classmates whose families had come from many different parts of the world, I had an early insight into the real catholicity and cultural diversity of the church into which I had been baptised. This of course is increasingly the rich experience of children in Ireland today. While some might think my own account that I suffered a disrupted form of early education as a child I have since come to see that thanks to the common denominator – which was being part of a Catholic school with its shared culture, faith and traditions – there was always a distinct sense of ‘family’ regardless of the school or country. May processions, Masses for various occasions, the preparations for Sacraments, for Lent, Easter, Advent and Christmas as well as visits from missionaries and those seeking to encourage vocations; religious statues, imagery and decoration– all of these elements were shared and enjoyed in Catholic schools. In England I learned the turbulent and painful history of Catholicism that followed King Henry VIII and the Reformation. In Westminster Cathedral where I often popped in on a lunchtime break, I could see for myself on a side altar the evidence of Catholic suffering in the martyred, robed body of St John Southworth with his silver death mask which as a child I found as mesmerising as the mask of Tutankhamun that many years later I saw as an adult in the Cairo museum. While at home in Ireland I frequently sat in a pew facing the head of the martyred St Oliver Plunkett in St Peter’s Church in Drogheda and alongside the prison door of the cell behind which the prelate had prayerfully and calmly awaited his execution. I later discovered that St Oliver too was a passionate proponent of Catholic education. In a letter written in 1673 following the destruction of Drogheda’s Catholic schools which had been razed to the ground he lamented; “What will the Catholic youth do, who are so numerous and full of talent?” Such examples of faith and courage and in the case of St Vincent de Paul the excitement of his story of capture by pirates and life of generosity were inspiring to the young mind.
Vocation
A year after my ordination to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Armagh in 1986 my then bishop the late Cardinal Tomas O’Fiaich gave me the opportunity to undertake postgraduate studies in education at Fordham University in New York. On return I was appointed Diocesan Adviser for Religious Education. This involved visiting Catholic primary and post-primary schools both north and south, from the Boyne to the Bann listening to teachers and students and frequently meeting parents for pre-sacramental talks. The traditional ‘green’ Catechism which I had been taught as a child with its rote questions and answers had by then largely been replaced by the more child-centred ‘Children of God’ series with its stories, songs and prayers designed to engage Catholic students engage in greater depth with their faith. More fundamentally this programme espoused the ‘three-legged stool’ approach to religious education of home, school and parish. The series used in Ireland whose theological framework was linked closely with the late Cardinal Cahal Daly (1917-2009) also found a warm welcome in schools in the UK and the USA. The new emphasis on seeing God’s loving handiwork in nature (long before Pope Francis and Laudato Si) and the well crafted and highly engaging and stimulating materials which brought bible stories and sacraments to life marked the beginning of a new era of catechetics.
As a full-time teacher myself from 1991-2002 and a college chaplain for another four years and then two six-year stints as a parish priest I was given precious insights into the value and challenges of a Catholic education in a rapidly changing world where religion and religious values were becoming disparaged and sidelined.
The shortage of clergy and the pressure on schools to devote less time to religion and spiritual activities combine to challenge the mission of the Catholic school”
In 2024 the strong links that once existed between home, school and parish are being tested. Schools reinforced the prayers, stories, traditions and value systems that were frequently passed on in families. Regular Sunday Mass and pastoral visits from clergy provided a trinity of faith formation between the family home, daily school and parish. Today, families, school and parish face daunting challenges. The radical changes in family life and living within the distracting ambit of social media; the shortage of clergy and the pressure on schools to devote less time to religion and spiritual activities combine to challenge the mission of the Catholic school. But the five elements of that mission remain.
Education for all, Educating the whole person, The search for excellence,
The uniqueness of the individual, the establishing of moral values.
The goals of providing education, character development and spiritual growth remain the most valuable asset for any society.