Cathal BarryA new process is being developed to assist Catholic schools rediscover their distinctiveness, writes Cathal Barry
Catholic schools are being urged to reflect on their founding intention in an attempt to rediscover what is distinctive in their service of the community and the common good.
The process to facilitate schools in reimagining their founding intention is being developed by Fr Michael Drumm of the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) and the Joint Managerial Body (JMB).
Fr Drumm told The Irish Catholic the process will involve “all partners in schools community including parents, pupils, teachers and members of boards”.
“It’s meant to be an all school approach. We will be providing schools with resources that they can use to facilitate conversations. The intention is to have conversations amongst all the key stakeholders in the school,” the chairperson of the CSP said.
Announcing the development at JMB Annual Conference this week, Fr Drumm insisted that in “a time of serious change it is always good to go back to origins”.
“The reason for doing so,” he said, “is not to find the answers to contemporary questions but rather to encounter again some of the energy that gave rise to the reality in the first place”.
“All of these schools were an effort to reinterpret the message of Christ in a particular time and place. Therefore it is useful to revisit Christian origins as part of the process of reimagining the founding intention of each Catholic voluntary secondary school.”
Responding to the question of why a Catholic voluntary secondary school should reimagine its founding intention, Fr Drumm observed that it should do so because a voluntary body “needs a distinctive vision”.
Expression
“If the school gives expression to a Christian understanding of the human person; if it seeks to continue the ministry of Christ; if it challenges students to draw from the rich resources of both faith and reason; if it dialogues with modern science, modern democracy and other religions; if it listens to the call of Pope Francis for renewed mission; then that school will have something distinctive to offer in the transformation and service of the human community in Ireland in the 21st Century,” he said.
Fr Drumm, who presented a workshop on the new process at the JMB’s annual conference in Killarney, Co. Kerry, this week confirmed the procedure should be available to schools who wish to roll it out from September.
Noting that there is “no such thing as a value-neutral education”, Fr Drumm insisted that all schools, whether established by the state or by one or other voluntary group, “necessarily and implicitly espouse a vision of the human person and give expression to a particular ethos by their choices, actions and priorities”.
Pointing out that throughout the world democratic societies provide funding and legal protection for a plurality of school types, Fr Drumm said it was “useful” to reflect on the principle of subsidiarity in this regard.
“The principle holds that rights and responsibilities should be exercised at the most local level possible. If individuals, families and communities can undertake socially progressive activities (like schooling) then the state should facilitate them rather than seek to replace them,” he said.
Fr Drumm added that the State “should take care not to overreach in its legislative provisions in areas such as school admissions, employment law and school ethos”.
“In doing so it can easily take on an over-centralising role which undermines the principle of subsidiarity,” he warned.
Fr Drumm commended Catholic voluntary schools, which he said were established by citizens “committed to human flourishing and the common good” who sought to “improve and transform society through education”.
“Such schools,” he said, “need to reclaim their freedom in re-imagining their founding intention and so to discover what is distinctive in their service of the community and the common good in the 21st Century”.
“There is a temptation in contemporary discourse,” the senior Church official said, “to dismiss religious belief as inherently irrational, divisive, and anti-intellectual”.
“This runs completely contrary to the Catholic education tradition which is built on respect for faith and reason.
“As students follow their timetable during the school day the subjects vary but the individual student remains a unique person with a past and a future.
“Catholic education wants to provide students with the ability to draw from the rich treasures of both faith and reason in creating that future,” he said.