By CONNIE MARSHNER
The world is full of bad news right now, but there is a ray of hope in Ireland.
It is widely known that in the space of thirty years Ireland went from being the most Catholic country in Europe to being the most anti-Catholic. How did that happen?
In 1966 the voice of the Church on matters of morality was heard: The bishop of Dublin spoke out about indecency on television and the national TV station had to apologize. Twenty years later, in 1986, a referendum to legalize divorce failed by 25 percent. But the apostasy had already begun: In 1995, another referendum won by 50.28 percent, and the prohibition against divorce was taken out of Bunreacht na hÉireann, the Irish Constitution. In 2015 same-sex marriage was legalized by national referendum; in 2018 abortion was legalized the same way.
What had happened?
First, the Church lost its credibility. It paid a steep price for its own failure of discipline: As far back as 1984, the president of St. Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth, resigned because of charges of the sexual abuse of seminarians. In 1992, it emerged that the bishop of Galway had fathered a child and used church funds to support the mother and child in America. At least that bishop was heterosexual — more and more pederasty and sex abuse stories came out through the 90s.
At the same time, a vicious anti-Catholic media campaign to demonize unwed mother homes known as the “Magdalen laundries” swept the country, and the world, for ten years — even though an official investigation in 2013 failed to substantiate the outrageous claims. But the propaganda had had its effect.
By then, worse influences had swept into the vacuum: along with the “Celtic Tiger” came huge foreign investment — both financial and cultural (e.g., George Soros, Google, and the like). The Catholic people were ill-prepared to resist it because not only were they demoralized, but, sad to say, education in Ireland had long been declining in every respect for a long time. Standards in every subject had been lowered as focus shifted to getting grades on tests, and getting jobs — never mind learning how to think!
Even English grammar and chronological Irish history ceased to be taught!
This decline had been going on for so long that the Catholic people were ill-prepared to resist massive anti-Catholic attacks. Due to its tragic history, Ireland did not have an educated laity such as we had here in the U.S. Here in America, a huge number of Catholic high schools and colleges had long had philosophy and theology requirements. In Ireland, that system did not exist! Catholics didn’t go to any schools until Queen Victoria established them!
After Ireland’s independence in 1923, the Irish government just took over the same system. Only seminarians studied philosophy and theology — for most people, the faith was a memorized catechism and questions ended with “because Father says so.”
It seemed that the isle of saints and scholars had ceased to be either. Despite everything, however, the faith is alive and well in Ireland. There are plenty of faithful Catholics in Ireland, and they want to educate their children in the faith. But government schools are officially de-Christianized — as they have unofficially been for years — so what are parents to do?
God does not abandon His people. He does not leave vacuums unfilled. The wonderful news is that something new has begun in Catholic education in Ireland. It is something that has not existed before in Ireland, but is well-known across America.
It is a private, independent, parent-run school, faithful to the Magisterium, instilling a love of God, and following a classical curriculum that teaches students how to think. It’s called the Mater Dei Academy, and it is now in its third year of operation, adding a grade level every year. It’s a secondary school (beginning at seventh grade), www.materdeiacademy.ie.
For younger children, there is a Mater Dei homeschool curriculum. Fortunately, home-schooling is protected in Article 42 of the Irish Constitution. Many Catholic parents already home-school, often using American curricula — Mater Dei is the first classical home-school curriculum that includes Irish language, history, and culture: https://materdeieducation.ie.
The difficulty is: The government has always provided education in Ireland, and Mater Dei is private. It takes no government money. Mater Dei Academy must survive on the voluntary contributions of faithful Catholics — and faithful Catholic families tend to be large, and strapped for funds. This is where Americans can help.
This summer, there is the opportunity to help by going on a pilgrimage to Ireland that will benefit Mater Dei Academy. More information will follow next week, but in the meantime, call Marian Pilgrimages at 877-545-2444, or visit www.marianusa.com, and find out more about the Saints and Scholars of Ireland Pilgrimage this summer!
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