President Obama says Catholic schools cause division in Ireland

President Barack Obama (above), repeated the oft disproved claim that Catholic education increases division in front of an audience of 2000 young people, including many Catholics, at Belfast’s Waterfront hall when he arrived in the country this morning.

“If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation,” the US president said. (source)

As Father Z says “And this is his business… how?”

Really the President doesn’t want division in their schools because children don’t know division in our public schools. Okay broad swipe, but when you compare most public schools to parochial schools there isn’t much to brag about.

I wonder how upset the President is regarding the private school education his daughters are getting.

The President’s attitude though is totally unsurprising. The fact is the majority of Democrats would rally for forced public school eduction if they could get away with it. The history of public schools in the United States is filled with the idea of bringing Catholics under line. The “Blaine Amendments” passed by many states certainly had this in mind. The Democrat opposition to school choice also falls in line with an opposition to parochial schools.

Public schools have become a way for the Democrat Party to raise up the “Democrat Youth” beholden to a Federal government that gives out party favors to all who are favored by them. The Federal government – Teacher Union loop just keeps feeding on each other as a bureaucratic perpetual motion machine.

The reality is that Democrats should not fear Catholic schools at all or at least not fear most of them. Students might receive a good education, but probably not regarding philosophy, theology, and a understanding of the faith. Maybe things are getting better in this regard, but time will tell.

The article continues:

The US politician made the unfounded claim despite a top Vatican official spelling out the undeniable good done by Catholic education in a speech in Glasgow on Saturday and in his homily at Mass on Friday.

Archbishop Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, told an audience in Scotland that Catholic education provided a rare place where ‘intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together’ while giving the presitigous Cardinal Winning Lecture on Saturday to officially launch the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic teacher education at Glasgow University. During Mass at St Andrew’s Cathedral, Glasgow, on Friday night he said that ‘the Catholic school is vitally important … a critical component of the Church,’ adding that Catholic education provides young people with a wonderful opportunity to ‘grow up with Jesus.’