Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has said it is his "strong conviction" that a pluralist society can be best served by a plurality in schools, "in which the variety of cultures and religious backgrounds are reflected, rather than through centralised uniformity".
He also said that "guaranteeing denominational religious instruction in a new form of State-sponsored primary school, not directly under religious patronage, would also allow the State to have an overseeing role in ensuring the quality of teaching of religion in order to ensure that abuses do not emerge or any form of fundamentalism in any religious tradition gain ground".
The archbishop was delivering the "Opening of the Academic Year Address" at the school of education studies in Dublin City University last night.
He noted that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recently addressed the question of demographic change in Ireland, where many immigrants are not Catholics while the ethos of most schools is Catholic.
"We have Catholic schools in Dublin where over 50 per cent are international children - in one school, the new entries are 80 per cent this year. Many of these will not be Catholics," he said. He repeated his opinion that "the fostering of plurality of educational patronage is something desirable and welcome in Ireland today and could bring benefit to all".
He observed that "pluralism in religious belief has now entered into a new chapter in its history in Ireland. In this new reality, the school must become a primary focus for fostering a climate of knowledge about various religions and about dialogue and mutual respect among different religious traditions."
He continued that, "in this State, all religious confessions have the right to expect the respect and the support of the State in education within one's own denomination and tradition. Is this something which divides the community? I do not believe so. Dialogue does not mean abandoning identity. Identity within a specific religious tradition can also be one open to and respectful of other religious traditions and of those who do not hold any religious faith."
He pointed out that "the Catholic schools in the archdiocese of Dublin have been extraordinarily sensitive to the fact of difference of ethnic, national and religious background in the school community and they deserve credit for what they have achieved".
The State, he said, "should be neutral in addressing religious diversity in the sense that it does not favour any individual religious community, except where such a community may suffer disproportionate disadvantage because of size or other reason".
There was "no evidence" a totally "religiously neutral secularist society" was the best space in which to foster dialogue between religions, he said. On the other hand, there were forms of secular society "in which hostility to religious values can indeed force religious groups into a dangerously narrow perception of their culture and thus sharpen religious differences".
