Catholic Schools Week is evangelising, not welcoming or inclusive

The Irish Times has published an article about this week’s Catholic Schools Week by Marie Griffin, chairperson of the Catholic Education Partnership. The article claims that Catholic Schools are places where everyone, of all faiths and none, is accepted and welcomed.

If Catholic Schools wanted to make everyone, of all faiths and none, accepted and welcomed in an inclusive environment, they could start by respecting the Constitutional right of children from atheist and minority faith families to not attend religious instruction classes.

Not only do they refuse to do this, they intensify their lack of respect for minorities by hosting a week that is clearly aimed at faith formation for children from Catholic families, and evangelising Catholicism to children from atheist and minority faith families.

As part of this, children must fill in a questionnaire on personal images of God, and survey each other about their different faiths or beliefs and represent the results in a pie chart. This is an unlawful breach of the human right to not reveal your personal beliefs and of GDPR regulations.

• The Catholic Bishops have told the NCCA that ‘the Catholic school exists to educate children in Catholic religious life and in Catholic religious beliefs which are normative for them’ and that ‘a pluralist approach to religion goes against the philosophical basis of Catholic religious education.’
• The Dublin Diocese told the NCCA that ‘denominational schools exist to educate children in religious life (and) beliefs that have been revealed by God. For Catholic schools, there is an express and implied duty that the children attending will be educated in the fullness of the faith.’
• The OSCE has developed the Toledo Guiding Principles on teaching ABOUT religions and beliefs. These principles are based on human rights and in particular the right to freedom of conscience. Out of the 56 States in the OSCE the Holy See is the only one that has rejected the Toledo Guiding Principles.

When Catholic schools say they are inclusive, they mean that they will include children from atheist and minority faith families within their Catholic ethos. That is not being inclusive. To be inclusive, the ethos of a school should not promote either religion or atheism.

Catholic Schools Week seeks to accelerate the evangelising of minorities into a Catholic way of life. It does not respect the constitutional and human rights of minorities. And the State has not put in place any guidelines to protect minorities from this evangelising in publicly funded schools.

The reality of Catholic Schools Week

The website of the Catholic Schools Partnership and the Association of Trustees of Catholic Schools makes clear the evangelising nature of Catholic Schools Week. Here are extracts from the resources for Catholic parishes, Catholic primary schools, and Catholic post primary schools.

Catholic Parish Resources

There is a set of resources for Catholic Parishes regarding Catholic Schools Week.

Parishes should arrange a meeting with the principals and teachers of primary and post-primary schools in the parish to discuss how to highlight and celebrate the work of each individual Catholic school as a community of faith and resilience.

The Mass on 23 January should include a prayer which includes: ‘Loving God … Help our school communities enable each person to … see themselves and others as made for loving and kind relationships with God … May we become more and more like your son Jesus … May your Holy Spirit guide us … We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.’

The parish newsletter should include a notice saying ‘During this week, we aim to celebrate the unique contribution that Catholic schools, both primary and post-primary, make to supporting each other and living out Jesus’ message of the Gospel.’

Where applicable, the school chaplain should visit as many classrooms as possible. The Catholic Schools Week resource will help offer the chaplain a theme for each day’s work.

Catholic Primary School Resources

The Primary School resources include themes and exercises that are clearly aimed at faith formation for children from Catholic families, and evangelising Catholicism to children from atheist and minority faith families.

The resources for Junior and Senior Infants include telling the children that God wants them to live as Jesus did and asking them how they could live like Jesus, singing the song ‘God’s Love is so Wonderful’, celebrating ‘the fact of God’s love for each ’, praying to God to take care of their grandparents, and seeing the world as part of God’s creation.

The resources for First and Second Classes include the above plus the story of the Prodigal Son, with the notes: ‘God will never stop loving us. Sometimes we make bad choices but we can always return to God and he will always welcome us back. God loves us and will always love us. Prayer helps us to talk to God, who always hears our prayers.’

The resources for Third and Fourth Classes include the children spending time reflecting on God’s love for them and how grateful they are for this love and for their life which is precious gift from God. Each day they should think of at least three things that they are grateful to God for and write them down and put them in a jar in ‘the sacred space’.

The resources for Fifth and Sixth Classes include asking children to invite God into their life, telling them that feelings of wonder and awe are the power of God working through their lives and through creation, and asking them to create replicas of the solar system and place them in ‘the sacred space’ and say a prayer together.

Catholic Post Primary School Resources

The Post Primary School resources also include themes and exercises that are clearly aimed at faith formation for children from Catholic families, and evangelising Catholicism to children from atheist and minority faith families.

The theme for Monday is Living Life to the Full With God. The Learning Intention is that students will explore images of God such as ‘God is perfect love’. It includes an exercise in which students fill in a questionnaire on personal images of God. This is an unlawful breach of the human right to not reveal your personal beliefs and of GDPR regulations.

The theme for Tuesday is Living Life to the Full Together. It includes an exercise in which students have to survey their class, find out the different faiths or beliefs of the students in their class, and represent the information on a pie chart/bar chart. This is an unlawful breach of the human right to not reveal your personal beliefs and of GDPR regulations.

The theme for Wednesday is Celebrating Being Together Again. It is about solidarity with older people in a Christian community. It includes an EWTN video about a ‘grandparents day’ dedicated to Joachim and Ann, the parents of the Biblical character Mary, and the earthly grandparents of Jesus, who ‘we can embrace as our spiritual grandparents.’

The theme for Thursday is Living Life in Wonder and Awe. It includes a song by a Christian musician who sees in the wonders of nature that God loves him. It asks students to respond to this quote from Pope Francis: ‘Christ is alive! He is our hope, and in a wonderful way he brings youth to our world, and everything he touches becomes young, new, full of life.’

The theme for Friday is Living Life and Facing the Future. It includes a song by a Christian musician the chorus of which is ‘if there’s anything good that happens in life, it’s from Jesus.’ It asks students to respond to the Bible quote: ‘All that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us.’

Summary

If Catholic Schools wanted to make everyone, of all faiths and none, accepted and welcomed in an inclusive environment, they could start by respecting the Constitutional right of children from atheist and minority faith families to not attend religious instruction classes.

Not only do they refuse to do this, they intensify their lack of respect for minorities by hosting a week that is clearly aimed at faith formation for children from Catholic families, and evangelising Catholicism to children from atheist and minority faith families.

They do this because it is the policy of the Catholic church that ‘The Catholic school exists to educate children in Catholic religious life and in Catholic religious beliefs’ and that ‘a pluralist approach to religion goes against the philosophical basis of Catholic religious education.’