Archbishop Charles Scicluna ruffled some feathers when he said he was willing to facilitate the teaching of Islam to Muslim children in Church schools. The reaction was out of proportion, mainly because it was misinterpreted. Church schools have done this before.
But when Mgr Scicluna went on Xarabank to explain himself better, the true crux of the matter emerged. Parents frustrated with the Church lottery system had one question to ask: what are Muslim children doing in Catholic schools in the first place?
Church school admission regulations, available online, state: “Church schools offer the teaching of the Catholic religion, this including the teaching of Catholic ethics. These schools will not offer an alternative subject to the teaching of the Catholic religion.” The proviso is very clear.
The Archbishop says that, if logistically possible, he would favour having Muslim children receiving religious instruction in Church schools, seeing it both as an issue of religious freedom and also a human right.
Schools, like De la Salle College, used to have Muslim boarders in the 1970s and 1980s. There were no problems then but the situation has changed.
Entry into Church schools today is through a lottery system that leaves many parents disappointed. The system is the result of the Church-State agreement that brought to an end the Church schools crisis of the 1980s.
Does it make sense, a mother in the audience asked the Archbishop, to admit Muslims to Church schools?
Mgr Scicluna could only agree with her reasoning and said the Church, through its schools, should be of service to Catholic parents first, given the limited places available.
It is bad enough that Church schools cannot select the most academically-qualified, as they used to do in the past. However, they should be in a position to ensure that entrants are at least ostensibly Catholic and that their parents want to give their children a true Catholic education.
Muslims and other religions have State or private schools to turn to. It is not because their presence, and their religion, in Catholic schools would dilute the school ethos. There are just too few places for the many parents who want to give their children a Catholic education.
The onus falls on State schools to provide religious teaching in the same way they provide ethics and Catholic instruction. It applies to Islam, to the Orthodox faith and to any other religion. The parents have a right to expect that. They pay their taxes like everyone else. Naturally, this would call for a curriculum, qualified teachers and, no doubt, overcoming logistical problems.
It is, after all, one of the ways to combat xenophobia. Only through more acceptance and integration can this country be ever rid of protests such as that organised by the Moviment Patrijotti Maltin outside the Archbishop’s Curia the other day. Their argument is that Islam is incompatible with the Maltese identity and would be an imposition on the Maltese way of life.
But what is the Maltese way of life they want to protect? Hedonism has become the order of the day. Society is on an unprecedented consumerist drive. It is called ‘progress’.
Society needs more, not less, religion.