“Catholic schools can be Catholic. It’s perfectly doable to express the faith fully and be radically hospitable. But too often leaders, without formation, feel they must ‘dial down’ the Catholic elements — the prayers, the symbols, even the Gospel story behind their founding charisms.”

Folláine was launched this week in response to the 2018 GRACE report, which identified a lack of formation for Catholic school leaders. The service offers resources, retreats and mentoring to help principals “take on the mission” by becoming theologically literate, confident in their schools’ ethos, and clear about their vocation.

Their focus is on principals, deputy principals and boards of management, rather than teacher formation for teaching specific syllabi such as RSE or SPHE.

A key principle of Folláine’s work is ‘radical hospitality’ — Aíocht — inspired by Pope Francis and Catherine McAuley’s call to “let hospitality be your special charge.”

“We want to rebuild with honesty, integrity and clarity as Catholics,” Dr Moran said. “In The Irish Catholic Breda O’Brien spoke of a ‘thin Catholicism’ in our schools. We hope to thicken it up.”