Sir, – Jacky Jones advocates removing religion from schools altogether and, instead, teaching human rights ("We do to need religion to calibrate our moral compass", Second Opinion, April 26th). Article 26 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children", a right stressed with even more forceful emphasis in the fundamental rights provisions of the Constitution (Article 42. 1).
Under Article 18 of the declaration, the universal right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion expressly includes “freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion and beliefs in teaching, practice . . . and observance”.
Accordingly, for those parents who wish to exercise their human right to have their children’s education include being taught religion, Jacky Jones’s proposal would violate that right. For that reason her proposal would also, of course, violate the very human rights principles she advocates should be taught in our schools.
In criticising Amoris Laetitia, Jacky Jones alleges that the authors misunderstand violence in the family, which they blame on poor communication and defensive attitudes, instead of misogyny.
This view would appear to be somewhat difficult to reconcile with the actual text of the apostolic exhortation which, in paragraph 54, in fact refers to acts of domestic violence as “rather than a show of masculine power, are craven acts of cowardice”.
Sadly, this is but one (and not even the most egregious) of the distortions of the content, and the thrust, of Amoris Laetitia in the piece. – Yours etc,
BRYAN SHERIDAN,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.