Denominational schooling has an important role to play in a pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin (pictured), has said.

His views were echoed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Richard Clarke, in an article in today’s Irish Times.

Dr Martin said that in order for religious education and religious culture to bring value to a pluralist society “it must be sustained in its originality”.

Speaking yesterday at a conference on migration in London he said that “denominational education has a place within a pluralist society but for that to work it requires that those in leadership in both religious education and education of other inspirations have to change attitudes and be mutually respectful and open to dialogue”.

He added: “I fear religious fundamentalism and indoctrination.  I also fear a State, which feels that a pluralist society must be monochrome and neutral and cannot be built around a plurality of visions. “

Archbishop Martin, in an apparent reference to plans by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to introduce a course on world religions said that he did not believe “that a simple course in the history and the sociology of religion will do justice to what religious education is about”.  

Freedom of religion, he added “is also one of the pillars of a rights based society”.

Archbishop Martin also said that Ireland had a public interest in supporting Protestant schools.

He said that defending independent Protestant schools was important because it allowed “the particular role of the Protestant communities in Irish society to flourish”.

Archbishop Martin continued: “These separate schools have in fact lead to an enrichment of Irish society through allowing the specific contribution to society of the Protestant communities to emerge.”

Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Richard Clarke, has said that he believes that there should be “clear blue water” between denominational schools and non-faith schools.

Writing in today’s Irish Times, Archbishop Clarke said that, as the education system changed, there was a need for “very clear distinctions between what we mean by ‘multi-denominational, ‘inter-denominational’ and ‘non-denominational’”.

While he said that, in the future, there might be a role for interdenominational Christian schools, he argued that faith schools and non-denominational schools should remain separate.

He said: “Non-denominational schools would not include aspects of faith as part of the life of the school. If different faiths were considered as part of a general educational programme, it would be entirely out of the context of engaged faith, but rather as of sociological or anthropological interest.

“My own view is that a proverbial ‘clear blue water’ between faith schools and non-faith schools is desirable. To find a middle ground in any school where religion is either patronised as of some value for making people happy, or is employed for dilettante consideration is both condescending and pointless.”