DUBLIN, Ireland – The Irish Christian Brothers plan to end the order's day-to-day direct involvement in their 109 secondary and 29 primary schools in Ireland.
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In recent years the number of vocations to the order in Ireland has decreased dramatically, the main reason that the schools' management is to be handed over to a new charitable trust called Edmund Rice Schools Trust, named after the order's founder. The schools will be run by laypeople once the trust has been formally approved by the Irish bishops' conference.
The order's reputation in Ireland has suffered in recent years because of allegations of serious abuse and neglect in the order's residential institutions, particularly their industrial schools. Similar allegations were made against members of the order in Canada and in Australia.
Nevertheless, the order played a central role in the development of modern Ireland and its prosperous Catholic middle class. Christian Brothers' schools provided free secondary education to thousands of working-class boys. Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was educated by the Christian Brothers, as were two former prime ministers, Charles Haughey – who died June 13 – and Jack Lynch.
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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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