Why I Understand why Catholic Schools call themselves Inclusive (even though they’re not)
With the war raging on in Gaza and no sign of any progress of it ending, the Israeli government seem determined to continue their reign of terror in the region. What I find difficult to swallow, apart from the barbaric acts, is that they say they are doing it in the name of Judaism. I reject this wholeheartedly and cannot support the murdering and maiming of so many innocent Palestinian people, especially children. While I obviously don’t support Hamas’ aims and actions to achieve these aims, I also think that the vast majority of Irish people do not support Hamas’ aims either: to quote their charter:
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.”
This kind of rhetoric goes beyond liberation and into the destruction of Jewish people.
I have to admit this is all in the back of my head when I see an Irish person wearing a keffiyeh or chanting “From the River to the Sea” even though I’m pretty sure, their intention isn’t to annihilation of Jews or even the complete destruction of the State of Israel. I also get a little bit uncomfortable when I hear people speak of Zionism as akin to Nazism even though I agree that some aspects of some forms of Zionism certainly match that. However, I must admit when I hear criticism of Israel, I feel a slight discomfort and feel a little defensive even though I almost always agree with the criticism. I’m not sure how to explain that feeling but I was talking to an American friend of mine who said they felt the same way when people talk about how stupid Americans are when they voted in Donald Trump.
Despite my friend being staunchly democratic and extremely fearful of what Trump’s reaign will do to America and the world, she said that she can’t help but feel a little bit defensive when Irish people start giving out about the people that voted for Trump, and she wants to defend her country somewhat, even though she agrees that things are going to get very unstable when Donald Trump takes over the White House. In fact, she is very relieved that she no longer lives there, but she can’t shake that slight defensiveness.
It got me thinking about the reaction I get when I talk about the Catholic Church’s control of the primary education system. Almost everyone that I speak to on a personal level agrees that the monopoly of church control on the education system is wrong and needs to change. They all agree that the church should have no influence in primary schools anymore and that they need to remove themselves from the system. However, when I accuse their schools are not being inclusive, it’s really interesting to see that their reaction is very similar. Initially, there is the same defensiveness my friend and I experience before talking it through, and it makes a huge amount a sense. In fact I can see how this makes perfect sense.
Almost all of these people grew up in Catholic homes. Almost all of them went to Catholic schools and never really had to think about the effect of Catholic control on education because it didn’t affect them. Almost all of them made their sacraments in school and thought nothing of it because there was nothing to think about because everyone else was doing it. Almost all of them went on to Catholic Teacher training colleges and did the Catholic Certificate in Religious Education without any thought because that’s what everyone else did, even if they didn’t really believe in the messages. Almost all of them got jobs in Catholic schools and, again, there was nothing to think about, because all the people working there never had any issues with any of it. (Sure at Christmas nights, they might even break into one of the songs from the Alive O programme.)
And then some lad from a different background, with a different set of beliefs, infiltrates the system and starts making all sorts of allegations that the education system is not inclusive. Even though this lad might be right — the evidence is all there:
- 99.7% of teachers are white Irish ethnicity
- 91% of teachers identify as Catholic (5% as Church of Ireland)
- In order to get a job in 96% of schools, teachers have to promise they will not only hold up a religious ethos but they are required to pass the faith of the school on to the pupils in the school
- Children that aren’t of the faith of the school must spend hours every week at the backs of classrooms, as second-class citizens of the school.
I could go on.
Despite all of that, most teachers will say that their schools are fully inclusive. (They always say fully.)
Much like my own defensiveness when I hear people shouting against Zionism; much like my friend’s feelings when she hears people laughing at American Republicans; I understand that when I complain about Catholic schools not being inclusive, that people get defensive.
Where we might differ is that I think I am aware that my defensiveness is not grounded in reality. I know that the Israeli government’s current regime is inhumane and is taking a form of Zionism to extreme levels, murdering innocent people. While I know that sometimes Irish people will go overboard and use profane language such as “F**k Zionists” without understanding the nuances of Zionism, I don’t believe they are being antisemitic. Criticism is justified.
The point of this post is that I need to reflect on the way I explain why I believe we need a complete separation of Church and State. I need to understand the vast majority of people, when I talk about the religious control of schools that this bristles with many teachers working in religious-run schools, even if they agree with me. It’s why I stopped using the phrase “religious indoctrination” and I now say “faith formation” even if they are the same thing.
My plan for 2025 is to do everything I can not to make teachers defensive while trying to explain why I believe we must tackle the structural, covert discrimination that occurs in religious-owned schools in Ireland. While I can’t promise I’ll always succeed — (did you bristle when I said discrimination?) — I’ll try and do my best.
