to not baptise my children?

[leafbarktree]

I live in Rep of Ireland, and have two small pre-schoolers, neither are baptised. DH and I were both raised Catholic and are non the worse for wear as a result, but both of us are now at best agnostic, and would disagree with the church on several aspects of their teaching.

In Ireland, the vast majority of schools have the Catholic church as 'patron', and are free to prioritise Catholic children over those of other faith or none. (schools with other patrons have the same right). All of our local schools are over-subscribed and the kids will not currently get in to any of them, unless we baptise them. There are a few non-denominational schools a bit further away, but again they are over subscribed, and the chances of getting in are slim-to-none.

The department of education has said that every child will be offered a place, but I know anecdotally the school that we would be offered. It's no where near us and doesn't have a great reputation on any score. Additionally, it's not a 'feeder' for any good secondary school, so we would be snookered further down the line again.

I am worried that we are hanging our children's education out to dry for the sake of our own principles. Should we just baptise the kids, get the piece of paper and get on with it? I am very aware that if everyone in Ireland keeps doing this, nothing will change.

"So stuff the church and the genuine believers - I don't see any of them out in support of the non believers."

Well, it's not my highest concern, but it is something I think about - I don't particularly care (to say the least) about the institutional church as a whole, mind. However, my own mother is a practicing Catholic and retired teacher and was horrified when it looked like my son mightn't get a school place (she was the person who pointed out to me that the system as it is isn't just discriminatory against non-Catholics but racist - weeds out the "new Irish"), as she is, yeah, kind of insulted by the "let's do first holy communion for the dress and money but complain about having to sit through mass and listen to all that God shite" brigade. My friend's wife is a devout Catholic but is campaigning for an Educate Together for her area because she thinks the system is ridiculous and doesn't necessarily want her own child to have a denominational education: she thinks that's the role of family/the church. I don't think it's only non-believers who want change, and I think turning it into a "atheists against those stupid believers"/"stuff the Catholics" issue (as at least one FB page I'm on tends to do) isn't particularly productive.

"If the church really had an issue with people going through the motions for reasons of expediency then surely they would be more proactive in turning some primary schools into multi-denoms? As someone said way upthread the church is more interested in bumping its numbers than weeding out the non-believers."

From my mum, I get the impression that many individual priests in parishes are in favour of that (or at least very much exasperated by the "going through the motions" bit and would prefer people didn't), but higher up the hierarchy and it's all PROTECT OUR ETHOS.

It annoys me too... Just wish everyone had the courage of their convictions on this one... Then schools would have to change their policies... My DCs weren't baptised... Much gnashing of teeth from ma who is devout Catholic... Luckily their schools were non denominational but I do sympathise... Religion should have nothing to do with access to a good education...makes me cross