Joe:
"Rushing to judgement"
The clerical sex abuse scandals first began to emerge in the 1990s - around 15 years ago - hardly a "rush to judgement" by anybody's standards.
The Church impeded any in-depth enquiries into them at every step of the way and it continues to refuse to pass on information on them.
The realism is that the church should not be allowed to hold the power and influence it still seeks to retain.
Religion still, in fact, controls the education system here, and through it, the minds of the future citizens of Ireland, they have never been given any other choice
I have little doubt that, had a referendum been called on the matter twenty years ago, there might have considerable support for the church's position.
I am equally sure that, should a referendum be held today, there would be little support for it, both because of the revelations of Church behaviour and the necessity of getting the most practical education possible to survive in a world where young people are almost certainly going to be forced to emigrate to survive - as one devout Catholic told me in an interview "the church has done more to keep my belly empty than it has to put a meal on the table".
It has always been a foregone conclusion that the church should have control of education - that has ceased to be the case.
That is the parental freedom "to send children to the school of their choice you talk about" - one that they have never really had.
Jim Carroll