People are mistaken who “think that most parents are less interested in a school with a Catholic ethos than previous generations,” Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin has said.

“We should not shy away from our ethos. We must put ourselves in the public square. If the Catholic school is to fulfil its mission properly, it cannot retreat into what it considers a safe space. A Catholic school that isolates itself becomes self-centred and self-referential,” he said.

Those with responsibility for such schools “now need to consider seriously what it is we do, how we do it, and how we prepare these schools to continue to reflect the Catholic ethos for the families who wish to enrol their children in them,” he said.

Archbishop Farrell was speaking yesterday at a Mass for the Association of Patrons and Trustees of Catholic Schools (APTCS) in the Dominican retreat centre, in Tallaght.