PRESS RELEASE
11 November 2008

Homily by Bishop Leo O’Reilly for the Mass of Commemoration to mark the 150th anniversary of the completion of Newman’s seven year service to Irish university education.
University Church, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin.

* Bishop Leo O’Reilly announces new all-Ireland initiative: Catholic Schools Week.

* Religious instruction is an integral part of the curriculum of the Catholic school and permeates the whole life of the school.  The pupil is the same person, whether in the classroom or in the church.  As Catholics, we are believers when we study.  We are rational when we pray.

* In recent times there have been calls for the teaching of religion to be removed from primary schools … [such calls are] totally at variance with a Catholic philosophy of education [and are] the logical consequence of a secular worldview which would deny the claims of religion to objective truth.


Please see full text of Bishop O’Reilly’s homily below:

I welcome the opportunity to offer some reflections on the legacy of John Henry Newman as we mark the centenary of his departure from Ireland.  He had come to Ireland at the invitation of Cardinal Cullen to found a Catholic University and he was rector of the Catholic University of Ireland from 1851 to 1858.

We have come to this beautiful church, Newman’s Church, to remember his service to Irish Education and to thank God for sending such a holy and gifted man to us.  We remember his great contribution to educational thought contained in his Discourses On The Scope And Nature Of A University Education, which were delivered in 1852 to launch the university, and which we are familiar with under the title, The Idea of a University.

Address by Bishop Leo O'Reilly, Chairman of the Bishops' Commission on Education, at the Parnell Summer School

“The main issues facing education in the years ahead”
- Establish new body to consult with Patrons regarding the provision of schools at second level
- Agreement needed between Department of Education and Patrons on lease details for new schools
- Young people asked to consider religious life and priesthood as a vocation

I am delighted to attend and I thank Professor Mike Cronin, Academic Director, Centre for Irish Programmes at Boston College, for the invitation to speak at this the 2008 Parnell Summer School in the beautiful surroundings of Avondale House, Co Wicklow.

This year’s theme, Educating Ireland; its development; role of religious schooling; impact of the ‘New Irish’ and the politics of education could not be more topical, and on behalf of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, I welcome this opportunity to set out the Church’s current position within the wider education debate.

Before I directly address today’s theme, I wish to congratulate the Leaving Certificate students who are receiving their results as I speak. I hope that their hard work is rewarded and I wish them well in the months and years ahead.

The Minister for Education has today asked students to consider choosing courses in science, engineering and technology. Clearly our economy needs people with these skills. However, in this the “Year of Vocation” for the Catholic Church in Ireland, I would ask young men and women to consider the Religious Life and Priesthood as a Vocation option. I have no doubt that God is calling young women and men of this generation to give their lives to spreading the Gospel and our society needs this service too. My sincere hope and prayer is that they will hear this call.

Demand increases for Theology courses

After a decade of decline, student demand for third level theology courses has increased this year.
The minimum entry requirement for the Bachelor in Theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, which is determined by the number of applicants, rose by almost 50 points this year to 305 points, compared to last year's all-time low of 260 points.
Entry points for St Patricks' Bachelor in Theology and Arts, which had been falling since 1998, also increased, to 315 points- this year.

Church demands key role in new secondary schools

By John Walshe Education Editor

Tuesday September 09 2008

THE Catholic Church is demanding control of a share of the new second-level schools planned for rapidly expanding areas, confidential papers reveal.

The position paper shows that Church leaders are angry over being "sidelined" by the State from the planning of new second-level schools in recent years.

Dismissing suggestions that it is pulling out of education, the Church insists that parents must have the right to send their children to a Catholic secondary school, if they so wish.

And if that is not possible, then the State has to look at the possibility of using the transport network to "bus" children to faith schools, it suggests in the paper, which was sent to Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe.

Just two weeks ago, the Church demanded further involvement in primary schools. Now the four main Church education bodies have upped the ante, saying: "The Department of Education has mistaken the silence of religious trustees as a licence to exclude them from any consultation process".

The position paper -- seen by the Irish Independent -- discloses that of the 31 new second-level schools established between 1992 and 2007, only one was a Catholic secondary school. It has since closed.

All the rest were community schools or VEC-run community colleges.

Religious education is a necessary part of pluralistic society
By John Murray

The Irish Independent Thursday August 28 2008

Diocesan Advisers

CLICK ON:

http://www.cpsma.ie/

 Catholic Education Schools Trust CEIST Link

http://www.ceist.org/

Resource: The meaning of Lourdes produced by the Diocese of Westminster

Lourdes – A place of Pilgrimage Version 1 and 2

Click on Link Below:

http://www.rcdow.org.uk/lourdes/default.asp

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
06/02/08

At odds: Cardinal Sean Brady and Caitriona Ruane The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has challenged education minister Catriona Ruane to clarify her vision for the post 11-plus system or risk chaos.

Cardinal Sean Brady told Catholic school heads that no child should be “sacrificed on the altar of experiment”.

New approach to religious education needed

Dr Andrew O'Connell, the Communications Director of the Presentation Brothers, has said the teaching of religious education in Irish schools must adapt to the changes in Irish society.Speaking to a conference of religion teachers in Killarney, Dr O'Connell said Irish society had changed dramatically over the past ten years and nowhere in the education world had been impacted by that change than the work of the religion teacher.