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| 2-September-2026 |
He said educators must be open to “spiritual and religious formation” and that “faith is not an added ‘subject’, but a breath that oxygenates every other subject.”
And he told educators this year that “Catholic institutions are called to be a ‘living environment in which the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction’,” and that “It is my hope that students will always be able to find in your institutions the sound doctrine entrusted to the Church.”
This confirms again what Atheist Ireland has been saying for years: that most of our publicly funded National school system is part of the evangelising mission of the Catholic Church. As is often the case, the Catholic Church is open about this, and Atheist Ireland keeps highlighting this, while the Department of Education and other State bodies look the other way.
And he told educators this year that “Catholic institutions are called to be a ‘living environment in which the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction’,” and that “It is my hope that students will always be able to find in your institutions the sound doctrine entrusted to the Church.”
This confirms again what Atheist Ireland has been saying for years: that most of our publicly funded National school system is part of the evangelising mission of the Catholic Church. As is often the case, the Catholic Church is open about this, and Atheist Ireland keeps highlighting this, while the Department of Education and other State bodies look the other way.
This church-state coalition must stop the Catholic evangelisation of children, in publicly funded National schools where children of other belief backgrounds have no option other than to attend.
Article 42.3.1 of the Constitution says that the state shall not oblige parents in violation of their conscience to send their children to schools established by the state or to any particular type of schools designated by the State. Publicly funded National Schools with a Catholic ethos are against our conscience because the state has failed to protect our rights in these schools, they are places of evangelisation.
Atheist Ireland continues to lobby for a secular state that respects equally everybody’s right to freedom of religion or belief.
An essential part of this is state-funded schools where children have access to an objective, critical, and pluralist education and that provide effective non-discriminatory exemptions from any content that is delivered through a religious ethos.
Pope Leo: Education forms the very fabric of evangelisation
Pope Leo published an Apostolic Letter ‘Drawing New Maps of Hope’ in 2025. In that, he wrote:
Education is not an ancillary activity, but forms the very fabric of evangelisation: it is the concrete way in which the Gospel becomes an educational gesture, a relationship, a culture.
The Catholic school is an environment in which faith, culture and life intertwine. It is not simply an institution, but rather a living environment in which the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction.
This implies that educators must be willing to learn and develop knowledge and be open to the renewal and updating of methodologies, but open also to spiritual and religious formation and sharing.
When it is true, faith is not an added ‘subject’, but a breath that oxygenates every other subject.
In April 2026, Leo told Catholic religion teachers working in Italian schools:
The religious dimension is a constitutive element of the human experience and cannot be marginalised in the educational process of the younger generations.
All this enters into your lessons, in the light of the ever-relevant teaching of the Church, in dialogue with other fields of knowledge and religious research and above all in the study of the inexhaustible pages of the Bible, from which we come to know Christ, the Son of God made man, the revelation of the Father’s face and the perfect model of humanity.
He did add that this should be done with respect for everyone’s freedom, and that true secularism does not exclude the religious dimension, but rather sees it as an educational resource.
But how can that freedom be genuinely protected in an Irish education system where, for many families, the only feasible local school is run by the Catholic Church as part of what Leo describes as “the very fabric of evangelisation”?
In June 2026, Leo told leaders of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities:
Catholic institutions are called to be a ‘living environment in which the Christian vision permeates every discipline and every interaction’. Your authenticity as true disciples of Christ will certainly assist you in transmitting the living Gospel in such a way that those entrusted to you can truly encounter the Lord and discover in the Catholic faith the unifying vision that Truth alone can provide.
As you continue to carry out the Church’s evangelising mission, it is my hope that students will always be able to find in your Institutions the sound doctrine (cf 2 Tim 4:3) entrusted to the Church…
Recent previous Church statements on evangelising in schools
Leo’s statements are nothing new. They confirm a long history of the Catholic Church expressing these sentiments. Here are some recent previous examples:
In 2022, the Congregation for Catholic Education’s official instruction ‘The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue’ said explicitly:
The Church is bound as a mother to give to these children of hers an education by which their whole life can be imbued with the spirit of Christ. In this sense, the education that the Church pursues is evangelisation.
The educational action pursued by the Church through schools cannot be reduced to mere philanthropic work aimed at responding to a social need, but represents an essential part of her identity and mission.
The whole school community is responsible for implementing the school’s Catholic educational project as an expression of its ecclesiality and its being a part of the community of the Church.
Also in 2022, Pope Francis told a meeting of educators in the Vatican:
Catholic education is also evangelisation: bearing witness to the joy of the Gospel and its power to renew our communities… I trust that this study visit will inspire each of you to rededicate with generous zeal to your vocation as educators… and thus the advancement Christ’s kingdom of truth, holiness, justice and peace.
He told participants in the International Conference on the Global Education Pact:
Not to speak the truth about God out of respect for those who do not believe would be, in the field of education, like burning books out of respect for those who are not intellectuals, destroying works of art out of respect for those who do not see, or silencing music out of respect for those who do not hear.
And he told participants in the 46th General Chapter of the Brothers of the Christian Schools:
Thank you for what you are and what you do! Go forth with the joy of evangelising by educating and of educating by evangelising.
Closer to home, in 2017, Archbishop Eamon Martin told an Irish conference on Catholic education:
Despite a changed context, Catholic schools remain as vital centres for evangelisation and catechesis, closely linked to parishes and local communities. It is reasonable, then, for boards of management of Catholic schools, in establishing their admissions criteria, to be concerned about ensuring that pupils from the local parish or group of parishes, are able to access their Catholic school.
He also wrote in an article in Catholic Culture in 2014:
A few weeks ago we celebrated Catholic Schools Week, acknowledging that our schools are distinctive – they are not only centres of excellence and learning, but they are also places of faith. So, if the Holy Father is calling on our young people to be agents of the new evangelisation, it is important to ask ourselves: to what extent do we, in our Catholic schools, facilitate young people in grasping the truths of faith, growing in love of God and neighbour, and in becoming witnesses for Christ?
Conclusion
In fairness to the Catholic Church, it is open about what it is doing. But the Irish State must stop pretending it is unaware of what is happening. Catholic schools exist to provide a specifically Catholic education, and the Vatican repeatedly says this involves evangelisation and a Christian vision permeating school life. That cannot remain the default model through which the State provides publicly funded education to children of all religions and beliefs.
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