Dissent in schools. (News in Brief).

Toronto -- In the annual educational issue of the Toronto archdiocesan paper, the Catholic Register (Aug. 25/ 02), Monsignor Dennis Murphy wrote a seven- page-long article on the religious aspect of Ontario's fully-funded Catholic schools. He describes the poor state of religion, blaming, in general, the aggressive secularism in which we live, and, in particular, parents of "families where faith is hardly practised," students who "seem to know precious little about God," and teachers who are, "in large part, religious illiterates as far as the Catholic and Christian story is concerned."

This analysis is a step forward from the usual puff pieces which ignore or deny that the Catholicity of schools is in danger. Msgr. Murphy fails however to go after the chief evil in the schools: dissent against the teachings of the Church, both doctrinal and moral. He mentions dissent among Catholic laity, but not the dissent among Catholic teachers, Catholic clergy, such as chaplains, and the teachers' union. He also doesn't mention dissent among instructors who teach religion to the teachers.

Monsignor Murphy is the director of Catholic education for the Ontario Catholic School Trustees' Association. He is in a position to influence changes in what is going on. But the fact that he here praises the Fully Alive series of sex education textbooks but says nothing about pro-homosexual programs, and nothing about the lack of doctrinal content, is not a sign of hope.