Catholic education should cater for ‘stronger minority’ – priest

The Irish Church should divest Catholic schools if they’re not providing a religious education, a Waterford and Lismore parish priest has said.

Fr Michael Mullins said that it’s better for Catholics to become a “stronger minority” and that Catholic education is “decapitated” without religious teaching.

“Education is more than just the accumulation of facts. It is the formation of character and it’s also the development of people’s religious or philosophical position. To see it purely as learning languages and doing sums, that’s a very limited understanding of education,” he said.

Dr Mullins added that it’s a “shame” Irish people have forgotten the vital role religious orders have played in educating the country.

“Well, the religious orders educated the people that no one else was educating. They made a huge contribution over two centuries. I remember before the national schools were established you would have had the Presentation Sisters and you had Bro. Rice’s group and they were educating people and they brought these people that otherwise wouldn’t have had any education – they brought them a very good level of education,” he said.

He also noted that the media only focus on the negative aspects of the Church, ignoring the important voluntary contribution that religious orders made in Ireland.