Madam, – Martin Long, of the Catholic Communications Office, is paraphrased in your article (“2,000 sign up to defect from church”, August 20th) as saying there were contradictions in someone wanting to leave the church but still have a child educated in a church-run school.
Considering the dearth of non-church run schools in this country, Mr Long’s contention is amiss. There is no contradiction here, but a lack of choice.
While I’m sure the majority of Irish parents have no interest in going to the effort to defect, more parents would consider it if their local church-run school was prevented from refusing their child’s application for enrolment as a consequence.
A parent’s faith or non-faith should not be the determinant in securing a child’s education. Church-run schools should be denied the right to refuse enrolment of a child based on their family’s faith. Church-run schools are, after all, offering a service funded by the State. They should go about doing their job and enrol children from a catchment area, not from a faith system. – Is mise,