Madam, - We are second-level students currently studying Religious Education for the Junior Certificate and, in the course of our studies, we feel there are some issues that need to be raised.
Neither of us is Roman Catholic nor have we been raised as practising Catholics. We came to our school with little knowledge of Catholic beliefs or those of any other major world religion.
Now, two years on, we have a relatively well-rounded knowledge of Catholic morals, beliefs, sacraments and celebrations. However, in these two years we have not studied any other world religion in half as much detail.
We are not criticising either our school or its teachers and we fully understand that ours is a Catholic school, but we also understand that there are a number of non-Catholic and non-Christian students in the school.
As two of these students, we feel that this one-dimensional syllabus neglects other aspects of religious education and even goes as far as treating non-Catholic students with disdain. - Yours, etc.,
ANA KINSELLA and T. BRADY, Dartry, Dublin 6.