Ireland Steps Away from Catholic Schools

[Warka]

From http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h9jOISSAT2OtzbqCL0ZXxfZ8K3hAD8TGS5AO0

Ireland Steps Away From Catholic Schools

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK

DUBLIN, Ireland — Ireland's government announced Thursday it will organize new nonreligious primary schools in the capital, a move that reflects growing immigration and declining church power in this traditionally Roman Catholic nation.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin said two new schools planned for northwest Dublin would not be controlled by the church, which for more than a century has been the principal administrator in Irish education — including for 99 percent of primary-age children today.

Hanafin said a third elementary school in Dublin, which opened three months ago under the patronage of the Catholic Church, would be transferred to secular control within two years. About 95 percent of its students are non-Catholics, chiefly Muslims and Protestants from Africa.

"The new schools will be open to children of all religions and none. They will be interdenominational in character, aiming to provide for religious education and faith formation during the school day for each of the main faith groups represented," Hanafin said.

The issue has grown each year since the mid-1990s, when Ireland's newly booming economy fueled its first-ever wave of immigration from eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

In little more than a decade, Ireland has gone from being a virtually all-white society to one with a large immigrant population, particularly on Dublin's north side, which is developing neighborhoods with predominantly foreign-born populations.

Catholic leaders welcomed the government's move as a reflection of social reality.

"The Catholic Church welcomes choice and diversity within the national education system," said Bishop Leo O'Reilly, chairman of the Education Commission of the Irish Bishops Conference.

"We believe that it is important to accommodate the rights and needs of people of different faith backgrounds, and of none, to an education which reflects, as far as possible, their sincerely held convictions and values."

[Geist]

Catholic school in Ireland just means a couple of Christian brothers live across the road, statues of Mary haunt every corridor, and you have to adorn the classroom with a cross. We still had the same 'interfaith' religion classes. One problem is the sheer level of skepticism in Ireland toward the church; sex scandals, dodgy bishops, pedophiles, industrial schools, and all the Hollywood fodder that offered. That being said this perhaps reveals the shift in Ireland's population best revealing as it does the children of the future.

[Niccolo and Donkey]

Geist: I just don't get how the Irish clergy could have been so messed up. I compare Ireland to Slovakia, Poland, and Slovenia, and the latter three have quite the opposite view of the Church that many Irish have.

Removing the Church from Ireland (whether quickly or gradually) takes away a pillar of Irish identity and further erodes Ireland and opens it up to becoming just another multiculti country that is Irish in name only.

[il ragno]

So what? The important thing is racial diversity, anyway.

Multi-hued wonderland o' tolerance and prosperity - here we come!

In little more than a decade, Ireland has gone from being a virtually all-white society to one with a large immigrant population, particularly on Dublin's north side, which is developing neighborhoods with predominantly foreign-born populations.

Catholic leaders welcomed the government's move as a reflection of social reality.

"The Catholic Church welcomes choice and diversity within the national education system," said Bishop Leo O'Reilly

[Charlie Robespierre]

Geist: I just don't get how the Irish clergy could have been so messed up. I compare Ireland to Slovakia, Poland, and Slovenia, and the latter three have quite the opposite view of the Church that many Irish have.It's most probably the English language that acts as a carrier for all the Hollysludge that is pumped into Ireland from which those other nations are largely insulated from. Those nations are out of the way, we're caught right in the middle of the anti-cultural cross-fire of the Anglo-sphere..
Removing the Church from Ireland (whether quickly or gradually) takes away a pillar of Irish identity and further erodes Ireland and opens it up to becoming just another multiculti country that is Irish in name only.The Catholic Church has already significantly degenerated. I dislike Catholicism as a type of pro-British internationale but I much prefer it to the souless void that would replace it and it is this sense that the church can count on me amongst its supporters...

[Geist]

Geist: I just don't get how the Irish clergy could have been so messed up. I compare Ireland to Slovakia, Poland, and Slovenia, and the latter three have quite the opposite view of the Church that many Irish have.



Its largely their own fault. Considering every man over 40 and their dog was beaten in school by a Christian brother and you can't help but get a negative image of the whole thing. Coupled with individual cases of bishops having children etc and it loses credibility. It brought itself down more or less.

[O'Zebedee]

^^^

The stories are the same from my relatives in Glasgow and (until lately) Dublin. I know my dad wanted nothing to do with the church when he was old enough.

On the other side of it I enjoyed my time in Catholic high school here, even though I'm agnostic. Much better than the public schools, though it may have had more to do with the quality of teachers than anything else.

[Geist]

^^^

The stories are the same from my relatives in Glasgow and (until lately) Dublin. I know my dad wanted nothing to do with the church when he was old enough.

On the other side of it I enjoyed my time in Catholic high school here, even though I'm agnostic. Much better than the public schools, though it may have had more to do with the quality of teachers than anything else.

My Catholic school was fine too, but by then most Christian brothers were gone. Plus they could no longer beat the fuck out of you so they weren't all that useful anymore.

[O'Zebedee]

My Catholic school was fine too, but by then most Christian brothers were gone. Plus they could no longer beat the fuck out of you so they weren't all that useful anymore.

There was still a nun (ex nun?) as principal when I was there - she once asked me (after some horseplay outside involving snowballs) why it was that boys sinned more than girls and made me pray with her in her office.

[Geist]

There was still a nun (ex nun?) as principal when I was there - she once asked me (after some horseplay outside involving snowballs) why it was that boys sinned more than girls and made me pray with her in her office.

LOL. Yeah one of the brothers worked in a shop; he was at least 90, and was ritually scammed by even the most moral or the students. He tried to flog little prayer books along with notepads and rulers.

[Kodos]

It's most probably the English language that acts as a carrier for all the Hollysludge that is pumped into Ireland from which those other nations are largely insulated from. Those nations are out of the way, we're caught right in the middle of the anti-cultural cross-fire of the Anglo-sphere..
The Catholic Church has already significantly degenerated. I dislike Catholicism as a type of pro-British internationale but I much prefer it to the souless void that would replace it and it is this sense that the church can count on me amongst its supporters...

Its an internationale all right but favorable towards Anglo Saxon societies it generally is not.

[Charlie Robespierre]

Its an internationale all right but favorable towards Anglo Saxon societies it generally is not.Well thank the Pope I never said that, then...

[Niccolo and Donkey]

Its an internationale all right but favorable towards Anglo Saxon societies it generally is not.

That's good, since the Anglo-Saxons are the enemies of everything that is decent and good.

[Errigal]

That's good, since the Anglo-Saxons are the enemies of everything that is decent and good.

... and they don't invite your Kappa-wearing self to their cottages up in the Muskokas!

[shanemac]

What is the % of non-whites in Ireland now?

[Niccolo and Donkey]

... and they don't invite your Kappa-wearing self to their cottages up in the Muskokas!

I prefer Diadora, and I'll be in Collingwood come Boxing Day :)

[Empress Cheesatine]

Give Ireland 100 years and their major religion will be Yoruban witchcraft.

[harjit]

... and they don't invite your Kappa-wearing self to their cottages up in the Muskokas!
It's not just WASPs in the Muskokas anymore, my uncle bought a pretty high-tech cottage up there.

Suck it up.

[Ahmadinebobina]

I miss school.

[Northern_Paladin]

I miss school.

You still alive?:deadhorse:

[Errigal]

It's not just WASPs in the Muskokas anymore, my uncle bought a pretty high-tech cottage up there.

Suck it up.

Good. I wish every Vizmin had been sent to Toronto's cottage country as soon as they got off the plane back in the Seventies. Let the U of T Liberals who love them most get the most.

Multiculturalism wouldn't have seemed quite so charming with someone like this on the Wood Lake Cottager's Assoc.
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Education/Pix/gallery/2005/08/12/iqbal.jpg