Cathal BarryReligious education is important in forming “good citizens”
Ireland’s newest bishop has spoken out in defence of the place of religious education in schools.
Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin criticised certain politicians for suggesting schools were not the appropriate place for the teaching of religious education.
“To suggest, as some politicians have done in recent times, that religious education should be taken out of the schools, would be to suggest that it is not really part of life.
“This is especially true at primary level, where the whole curriculum is integrated and where each subject feeds into and draws from all the others. Religion is part of our history, part of our literature and part of our musical tradition and vice versa,” he said.
He acknowledged that some politicians and social researchers may be right to suggest there is a pressing need for more maths, science and languages in order to respond to the needs of the economy, but the bishop warned: “It is important to remember, however, that our children are not for the economy. Rather, the economy is for our children.”
Remarks
Bishop Doran made his remarks in his first pastoral letter “A Future Full of Hope” on the theme of Catholic education, which was launched this week.
He noted that the role of religious education was to assist parents in educating their children by providing expertise in a subject that they may lack.
“If faith is part of our world, then it must also have its place in our schools. As with history or music, or home economics, the school supports the religious formation that parents give their children at home, and provides the expertise that parents lack, because they cannot be experts in everything.
“When we form our children in faith, we are also teaching them to love others as God loves them. This means being good citizens, respecting the lives and the property of others, doing an honest day’s work, caring for the sick, working for human rights and social justice.
“Religious education, properly understood, has an enormous contribution to make to the common good of society,” he said.