You'll miss the Catholic ethos if it goes [Independent.ie]
- Published: 18 March 2011
Such are the vagaries of news that a story which in one week might get a lot of attention will get none at all in another.
In a quieter week than this, a speech Archbishop Diarmuid Martin delivered on Tuesday evening in Mater Dei Institute on the subject of church and State would have been reported more widely than it was.
It deserved to be, because in it he had important things to say about the Constitution, the planned children's rights referendum, the constitutional definition of marriage, and the future of denominational education.
With regard to children's rights, he acknowledged the need to "ensure the rights of children are properly protected" but cautioned against thinking that "simply moving responsibility from parents to the State would provide a more effective answer".
In a low-key, non-confrontational manner (which may also explain the lack of media coverage) he also fired a shot across the bows of the Government and its planned 'Constitutional Convention'.
The Government doesn't need to be told that Martin is the most influential churchman in the country and therefore it should pay attention to what he had to say on this.
With regard to the Constitution in general, he defended it against "simplistic caricatures" that it represents an "unquestioning regurgitation of sectarian Catholic principles". He said it is "remarkably modern in many of its aspects" and that constitutions should not be "played around with lightly".
He defended the constitutional definition of the family as based on the marriage of a man and a woman. He said other forms of relationship should be given their fundamental rights, but that traditional marriage is "a fundamental good in society, which deserves a unique protection".
But the government minister that needs to pay the closest attention of all to this address is our new Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn.
Despite his embarrassing neo-McCarthyite paranoia at the time of the publication of the Ryan Report about the Department of Education being infiltrated by members of Opus Dei and the Knights of St Columbanus, I suspect that Quinn on the whole will be more inclined to listen to opposing views than some of his colleagues.
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