THE Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, in his recent Lent en pastoral letter, warned that the "withdrawal of religious from schools" is a factor that will "change the face of the church in Ireland in ways that could scarcely have been envisaged thirty years ago". Only this month the Dominican Order advertised no fewer than three principal ships in Dublin and Wicklow.

Sister Teresa McCormack, director of the Education Office of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) says that twenty years from now some congregations currently involved in education will have so few members that they won't be able to remain even as trustees - let alone as teachers or principals - in schools. Moreover, she says that some congregations currently involved in education estimate that if current trends continue they may have ceased to exist within 20 or so years.

McCormack says that in the school year 1969-70, there were 2,300 members of religious congregations in schools receiving incremental salaries. These represented as many as one third of the total teaching force. Only 23 years later, by the school year 1992-93, the number of religious had decreased by more than half. By 1992-93, religious orders retained only about 1,000 posts and represented less than ten per cent of the teaching force. Of that thousand it was estimated in 1992-93 that over 36 per cent were within ten years of compulsory retirement.

She says the number of religious retiring from teaching far exceeds the number entering it. In addition, congregations have themselves sought out new ministries. A survey conducted by CORI in 1991 showed that almost 20 per cent of members who left teaching over the previous decade had moved into a new ministry.

Teresa McCormack says that in 1992-93, when only six per cent of religious in second level schools were aged under 35 years, provincial superiors reported that very few newly professed members were interested in working in schools. Already there are as many as 258 lay principals out of a total of some 380 Catholic voluntary schools.

McCormack says that because of this, some congregations are trying to transfer their current obligations as trustees to others. But there are no obvious groups in the church or society structured in such a way as to readily become trustees.

She says that in theory congregations must decide on a partial or total disengagement from a school. Partial withdrawal involves the establishment of a board of trustees for a fixed period with a membership comprised entirely of people nominated and appointed by the congregation. The religious order retains legal ownership of the school and enshrines its ethos in a deed of trust. At the end of the fixed term the order can renew the deed of trust or move to total disengagement from the school. The congregation retains the power to declare that the trust has failed. She says it is a short legal step from partial disengagement to total transfer of ownership and all responsibility for the school.

In practice, however, Brother Donal Blake, education officer at the Christian Brothers' St Helen's Education Office, says that few people are queuing up to become trustees. Responsibility for property and litigation is not lightly taken. Dioceses are themselves reluctant to become trustees of schools. He says that although some congregations' schools have been transferred to dioceses - becoming diocesan colleges - this is by far the exception.

John White, assistant general secretary of ASTI, warns that a lot of unseen and hidden work is done by religious congregations and that after they have pulled out of a school this work has to be done by lay people.

When religious withdraw, the school is often amalgamated with other local schools. The ASTI policy on amalgamations is to safeguard the continuity of employment and working conditions for its members. It ensures that a written agreement about the form of amalgamation, the new terms and conditions of employment and new building developments is concluded before rationalisation proceeds.

SOME parents find the question of religious withdrawal from schools worrying. One parent we spoke to confided that "the whole issue is dynamite. What's going to be here for our children's children?".

Una Harrington, president of the Christian Brothers' Parent Council, says that generally parents aren't aware of what's going on. She values the Catholic focus on the education of the whole child and fears that after congregations have withdrawn, pupils will merely be products of a system.

"There's no doubt we're not going to have religious running schools," she says. "People have to be aware of what's happening. The World Bank is deciding about education but it doesn't make a person. If we don't take it on board now it'll all have changed so fast. Who are thee trustees going to be in the future?"