Civil marriages overtake Catholic marriages for the first time

Census figures released today show yet again that Ireland is no longer a Catholic country. Our laws must catch up with this reality, and stop giving privilege to the Catholic Church.
For the first time ever, in 2020, there were more Civil marriages than Catholic marriages in Ireland. 42.1% of marriages were Civil, compared to 34.6% that were Catholic.
Yet most of the children of these couples will have to attend a state-funded school run by the Catholic Church, where they will be taught Catholic doctrine about marriage, including that marriage is only between a man and a woman.
Marriages by all traditional Churches, including Christian and others, are now an overall minority at 43.4%. This includes 42.1% Catholic, 1.2% Church of Ireland, and 7.6% other religions.
Of the other 14.3% of marriages, 7.8% were humanist and 6.7% were spiritualist. Legally, humanist marriages are counted as secular while spiritualist marriages are counted as religious. Read online…

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Teachers should not have to challenge Catholic school ethos to deliver objective Sex Education

The Vice Chair of the INTO, Joe McKeown, said yesterday that the INTO would take steps to make sure that teachers are not disciplined or punished for a failure to use the Catholic sex education programme Flourish in schools.
And Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said today that inclusive and age-appropriate curricula for sex education, including an inclusive programme on LGBTI+ relationships, “is the Government’s policy and position, and it is what we expect to be upheld in publicly funded schools.”
However, both the INTO and the Government will have to face up to the problem that our laws allow school patrons, who are mostly Catholic Bishops, to influence the State curriculum with their own religious ethos, and to discipline teachers who do not uphold that religious ethos.
The Catholic Bishops have launched the new sex education course, which is to be taught in primary schools alongside syllabus Social, Personal and Health education (SPHE). The 1999 Primary School Framework also sanctions the integration of religion into all subjects.
The INTO Position
Joe McKeown was speaking on KCLR 96fm with Atheist Ireland’s Human Rights Officer Jane Donnelly, Paddy Monaghan from Education Equality, and presenter Eimear Ni Bhraonáin.
Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act is still in place and teachers can be disciplined for refusing to uphold the ethos of schools. Under the Education Act 1998 the ethos of schools is set by the Patron, the vast majority of Primary schools in Ireland are under the control of the Catholic Bishops. In addition Department of Education policy is to integrate religion into all subjects under the curriculum.
In response to question from Jane Donnelly about Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act, Joe McKeown said:

“I can certainly say, Jane, in relation to that, that the INTO will be taking steps to make sure that teachers are not disciplined or punished for deciding not to use this programme.”

“Groups such as ourselves will look at the resource in more detail and we will decide on a considered response… most teachers will choose not to use it, I think but that doesn’t invalidated the points made about the bigger issue, about the place of religion in our schools. ”

“The Tánaiste may say that Catholic schools have an ethos, but sex education needs to be fact-based. Facts do not have an ethos. Can he tell me why, in 2021, RSE for Irish children is being developed by Catholic bishops and not the National Council for Curriculum Assessment? Why has the Minister for Education remained silent on this? What is the Government going to do to ensure pluralism in our schools and that we teach our children mutual respect?”

“The programme for Government is explicit on this and states that the Government will develop inclusive and age-appropriate curricula for RSE and social, personal and health education, SPHE, across primary and post-primary schools, including an inclusive programme on LGBTI+ relationships. That is the Government’s policy and position, and it is what we expect to be upheld in publicly funded schools.
As things stand, all schools have to have an RSE policy and that has to be developed in consultation with school management, parents, teachers and students, as appropriate. A school’s programme for RSE is developed and taught in the context of the school’s RSE policy. The ethos of the school should never preclude learners from acquiring knowledge about the issues involved, but may influence how the content is treated.”

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Objective versus Catholic Sex Education – the Background

Atheist Ireland has been working for several years on the issue of objective versus Catholic sex education in Irish schools. If you want to understand more about the issue, you can read our submissions and articles linked below.
The Department of Education supports the integration of religion into sex education through the Framework for Primary Education 1999. In 2018 the Oireachtas Education Committee recommended that the Education Act be amended to ensure that sex education was delivered objectively. This has not happened, and now the Catholic Bishops have introduced a new course called Flourish to ensure that sex education is delivered through a Catholic ethos.
In the majority of Irish schools minorities both religion and non religious have a choice between Catholic sex education and no sex education at all. Relationship and sexuality education is part of Social, Personal and Health Education. If minorities opt out of SPHE, then they get no social education at all notwithstanding the fact that they have a right to it and the state has a duty to provide it.
Atheist Ireland will continue to work on this issue and are meeting with politicians to discuss it at present. All students have a Constitutional right to Social and Moral education and the state has a duty to provide it.
UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2020
Atheist Ireland’s most recent Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child was a joint submission with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Evangelical Alliance Ireland. You can read our Submission here.
In their List of Issues in October 2020 in relation to Sex Education the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child asked Ireland to:

1 (c) Ensure comprehensive, age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including information on family planning, contraceptives and the risks related to early pregnancy, as well as on the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections;

 (d) Raise awareness of and foster responsible parenthood and sexual behaviour, with particular attention to boys and men;

(c) Integrate compulsory and standardised age-appropriate education on sexual and reproductive health and rights into school curricula, including comprehensive sex education for adolescent girls and boys covering responsible sexual behaviours and focused on preventing early pregnancies; and ensure that it is scientifically objective and its delivery by schools is closely monitored and evaluated;

The Committee further welcomes the introduction of a new short course in Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) for the junior cycle. Nevertheless, the Committee is concerned at:
(a) Reports of stereotypes and sexism in the field of education, and at the lack of concrete measures to curb this phenomenon;
(b) The gender-approach of the apprenticeship training programme, which effectively attracts few women and girls;
(c) The narrow approach towards the provision of sexuality education due to the fact the content of the Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) curriculum is left to institutions to deliver it according to the schools ethos and values and as a result it is often taught together with biology and religious courses.

Why does the state not understand the Constitutional right of parents to freedom of conscience?

The Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in schools is a sub-section of the Constitutional right to Freedom of Conscience and the free profession and practice of religion. The courts have recognised that this is not confined to those that have a religious conscience. It applies to all.

1. Freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion are, subject to public order and morality, guaranteed to every citizen.

44.2.4. Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.

With the new Catholic Sex Education programme ‘Flourish’ in the news, keep in mind this article from a few years back…

6 year old Infants in Irish schools taught that ‘Mary says ‘YES’!

As part of the new Catholic religion course ‘Grow in Love’, six year old infants in Irish schools are being taught that ‘Mary says YES’! to God ‘working through her’ by making her pregnant, despite Mary being afraid, confused and not understanding what was going on.
Mary looks like a little girl in the picture that is to be displayed in all classrooms. When Mary says ‘YES’!, she is sitting on her bed looking startled, it is nighttime, and there is a little kitten with a heart on it beside her on the floor.
This is an extraordinary and dangerous message to give to young children. ‘SAY YES’!, even if you are afraid and confused. Just trust someone that comes to your bed in the night.
Of all organisations, the Catholic Church should know that we have higher standards of child protection today than were common when this myth was first invented two thousand years ago, at a time when Jewish girls were typically betrothed for marriage at about twelve years of age.
The ‘Grow in Love’ religion course is based on the Catholic Preschool and Primary Religious Education Curriculum. The Catholic Church sought and received approval from the Holy See for its use in publicly funded Irish National Schools. This approval is called a “Decree of Recognitio“.
The Religion book for Senior Infants describes this section as;

“The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary”

Young children are expected to complete a maze to help Gabriel to find his way to Mary, who is portrayed as a child in her bed at night, and then the children have to trace out the word ‘YES’. Read more…