A Catholic priest has insisted that the majority of parents in Ireland want the current system of school patronage to remain unchanged.
Speaking to The Irish Times newspaper, Fr Brendan Hoban, a founding member of the Association of Catholic Priests criticised an apparent “presumption” within some quarters, not least the press, that there is a great appetite for divestment of Catholic schools to other patronage forms when in fact, the opposite was the case.
“The presumption in media circles,” he said, “is that the only impediment to resolving the situation is for the very bold Catholic Church to do the bidding of Atheist Ireland and those who imagine Irish parents are waiting with bated breath for a religion-less, spirituality-neutral system of education.”
It is abundantly clear, Fr Hoban added, that parents, who have a strong stake in their local schools, often through fundraising and developing facilities, have “no intention of handing over their local school to anyone”.
Pointing to surveys conducted by the Department of Education, Fr Hoban said the true “support for secular schools ran at between 1 per cent in rural and 8 per cent in urban areas”.
Fr Hoban insisted this was the crux of the matter as ultimately, only parents could make the final decision on divestment. He described as “a fatal presumption” any notion by the Catholic hierarchy that they “could deliver the divesting programme by, say, issuing an edict from Maynooth”.
Fr Hoban went on to state that the real issue at hand to be addressed is one of school places and not the much mooted divestment drive. And this, he added, is the responsibility, not of the Catholic Church, but of the State”.