Sir, – The decision by the Archbishop of Dublin to remove the priority for siblings on school entry marks a further move in opening all Catholic schools to all children, at least in Dublin (“Catholic schools say they are powerless in bid to end ‘sibling-first’ admissions”, News, September 14th).
Taken with the recent decision to remove the requirement for Catholic baptismal certificates, this move is likely to increase religious diversity in schools, which is welcome.
However, the numbers of children who are not Catholic sitting at the back of the class will also increase. This will not improve the quality of faith formation classes.
In reality, all faith formation classes, like sacramental preparation, should be moved outside the school day because the current system for faith formation is simply not working and should be changed. In an average class of 24, six children will most likely not be Catholic. Of the 18 Catholic children, 12 will come from families who seldom attend religious services. If you define a practising Catholic as someone who attends religious services at least once a month or more, then, other than for periods of sacramental preparation, only one quarter of the class, or six children out of 24, are practising Catholics.
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This is hardly the environment required to produce vocations. In addition, the visible role model – the teaching priest, brother or nun – has all but disappeared from the classroom. The presence of large – and increasing – numbers of children at the back of the class who are not expected to participate in faith formation can only make it more difficult for Catholic children to understand and accept the stories and tenets of their faith.
In contrast, we can be reasonably certain that all the children in faith formation classes in evangelical churches are practising their religion – and there are no non-participating children at the back of the class. These churches are thriving.
Meanwhile, the current generation of Catholic schoolchildren are the second generation for whom religious practice is not a significant part of their lives.
But parents, on the whole, are happy enough with Catholic schools as long as long as they prepare their children for first communion and confirmation and put on little school plays at Christmas.
But this infantile approach to faith formation trivialises religion, and the vast majority of young adults have given up regular religious practice even before they leave school.
If the Catholic Church wants to recreate the devotional atmosphere of the past in faith formation classes and to encourage vocations, they must arrange things so that these classes, like evangelical classes, are attended only by those who actually want to be there.
This means taking faith formation out of the school day, or, at the very least, moving these classes to the end of the school day and allowing those who do not wish to attend to go home.
With no change, the young priest, like the young nun today, will soon be a thing of the past. – Yours, etc,
ANTHONY O’LEARY,
Portmarnock,
Co Dublin.