Sir, - Integrated schools are not a solution to any problem. In conscience, a baptised Catholic child should attend a confessional Catholic school where these exist and are reasonably good academically, in Northern Ireland or elsewhere.
The history of the denial of Catholic education to parents since 1690, and especially the behaviour of Orange-dominated Stormont government since 1921, should initiate an attitude of great caution in regard to the ownership and management of their present schools by the Catholic community in Northern Ireland.
It is essential to preserve the Catholic ethos which is essentially an ethos based on daily prayer and attendance at Mass in a building which is adorned with pictures and images of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Saints and the Pope. Catholics are obeying the words of Jesus: "Could you not watch one hour with me?", and: "Do this in memory of me." Jesus makes community demands, not fulfilled by DIY, individualistic religious actions.
There is opposition among some Protestant churchmen west of the Bann to integrated schools because the loss of numbers can result in closure of small Protestant schools; the more moderate parents will move their children to the integrated school, leaving a hard-line group opposed to ecumenical developments in the State school.
In Catholic schools, the integral Irish culture of Irish language, games, history, music and dancing is preserved and encouraged.
As regards comprehensive education, the voluntary Catholic grammar schools and the voluntary Protestant grammar school, would have to "jump together", otherwise parents would go to the surviving grammar schools which might not be Catholic. - Yours, etc.,
Rt Rev Msg Denis Faul, PP, Parochial House, Carrickmore, Omagh.