Too many school children are receiving no faith formation at all, according to Fr Patrick Moore, a priest who has been involved in education for the past 20 years.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, he said: “I think it is absolutely appalling that [many] young people… have no formation in Faith whatsoever. I’m told they have civics classes in which they talk about world religions, you might as well be talking about various species of butterflies. It has little impact on Faith practice – it’s pretty serious”.

Fr Moore said that in his experience under the Education Training Boards (ETBs),  established in 2013, there has been an “appalling lack of faith formation”.

He commented that it would be “terrible negligence” to allow children to receive no faith formation regardless of changing demographics.