Showing posts with label conservative Catholic school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conservative Catholic school. Show all posts

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Maleizen convent Sint-Ignatius school under watchful eyes



One month before schools start we wonder what is going to happen to the very conservative Catholic school in Overijse.

Located in the Maleizen convent Sint-Ignatius was officially recognised by the government in November 2015. Because it had fewer than 83 students the shcool did not receive subsidies.

The school has been the cause of some concern in the region, however, because it bases its religion lessons on the Mechelse Catechism, which was published for the last time in 1954. Flanders’ Catholic education network and the archdiocese of Mechelen and Brussels – the most senior of Belgium’s Catholic hierarchy – have now spoken out against the school’s curriculum, saying that it is dangerously outdated.

The founders of Sint-Ignatius, on the other hand, have publicly denounced regular Catholic schools because they allow “atheists and Muslims to teach” and their teachers “encourage the use of contraception”.

Crevits had arranged a second visit by education inspectors to Sint-Ignatius, and also asked the education department’s Management Commission to determine whether the school’s criticism of the Catholic education network constitutes an “attack”. A government circular explicitly forbids school managements to attack other education providers.