All parents, whatever their denominational background, have the right to have their children educated in accordance with their religious convictions, the 
head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has said.
Speaking to the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Catholic Principals’ Association, Cardinal Brady said that this right was “recognised in international instruments of human rights, including the European Convention on Human Rights”.
And he added that children also had “a right to be trained and formed in the worship and prayer of the faith community to which they belong”.
Catholic schools, Cardinal Brady said “should never apologise for insisting that our rights as a community of faith are respected and treated on the same basis as the rights of others”.
“This is what we expect from a society which claims to respect pluralism and diversity,” he said.
The bishops, who act as the Trustees of Catholic schools in the North, had “on behalf of parents who want a Catholic education for their child, worked hard for many years to ensure that the right to have schools which are authentically Catholic was adequately provided for”.
Consequently, he insisted that any change in management arrangements for Catholic Schools in Northern Ireland which undermined existing rights of Trustees in relation to employment, management or area planning could not be supported.
He continued: “The Catholic community has invested too much in their schools and in securing recognition for the rights of Catholic education to now see those rights diminished.”
He added that the Trustees of Northern Ireland’s Catholic schools would “continue to support efforts of the Protestant Churches to have their rights with regard to the Controlled sector respected in the context of the Education Bill or any other legislative change”.
It was vital, Cardinal Brady said “that we support each other in upholding the principle that parents have a right to schools which promote a religious ethos”.
He continued: “Time and time again research confirms that a Catholic ‘Ethos adds value’ to a school. Catholic ethos adds value to the educational experience of a child, not just in terms of academic performance but in terms of the complete development of the person – a citizen of the kingdom of God and of a community here on earth of which they can be proud and in which they can be confident participants.”