The Catholic Church “is committed to providing Catholic Schools to cater for the needs of parents who wish to exercise their constitutional right to the provision of faith education,” Archbishop Sean Cardinal Brady (pictured), the Catholic primate of All Ireland, has said.

Speaking yesterday at Saint Mary’s College, Dundalk at the launch of Catholic Schools Week, Cardinal Brady said that the Church “holds the view that the children of Catholic parents have first claim on admission to Catholic schools, just as Protestant children have first claim to admission to Protestant schools, and Muslim children have first claim to admission to Islamic schools and so on”.

“Of course wherever possible – provided they have places and resources – Catholic schools welcome children of all faiths and none,” he added.

His remarks come as prominent Labour TD Aodhan O Riordan claimed that ‘religious ethos’ has no place in Irish schools.

Mr Ó Ríordáin, vice-chair of the Oireachtas education committee, told The Irish Catholic that “religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic”.

His remarks came as senior Church sources said that a document issued by the Dublin North Central branch of the Labour party and known as the ‘Clontart Report’ amounted to the ”bullying” of Catholic schools.

The sources say the document falsely accuses them of breaking the law over enrolment policies that admit Catholic children ahead of other children if the school is over-subscribed.

Cardinal Brady paid tribute to the work done by Catholic schools. Church schools, he said were a “good example of co-operation between the parents, teachers and community”.

However he said that Catholics needed to beware “of loading too much on to the schools”. Catholic schools, Cardinal Brady insisted were, “after all, a help to parents”.

“Every element must play its part. There is the temptation to overload the school and overburden the teachers,”.

He said that “the really big challenge” facing the Church in Ireland and the Western world generall was the question of faith.

“How do we pass on a faith that is deep enough to really change lives and to enliven a new announcing of the Good News, a faith that is strong enough to withstand the opposition it will meet and a faith that is informed enough to respond to objections?” he asked.