- The Iona Institute - https://ionainstitute.ie -

Church-State covenant to be raised at dialogue meeting

Religious leaders are expected to ask Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to elaborate today on what he meant when calling for a new ‘covenant’ between Church and State [1] during last year’s papal visit.

The latest structured dialogue meeting involving the Taoiseach, members of the Government and representatives of the churches, of other faiths and of non-confessional bodies will take place at Dublin Castle.

The Catholic Church, which will be represented at the meeting by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Siobhán Hanley, head of Trócaire Northern Ireland [2], will call on the Government to support parents “who wish for a faith-based education for their children”.

The Church of Ireland is to discuss the primary school forum, which it said was “extremely constructive as a means of critical engagement with the formation and implementation of Government policy in the sector”.